
Copyright N°. 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



<v 



HOW TO STUDY THE BIBLE, 

THE SECOND COMING 

AND 

OTHER EXPOSITIONS 






BY 

I. M. HALDEMAN 
u 

Pastor First Baptist Church, New York City 




CHARLES C. COOK 

150 Nassau Street, New York City 



- --. -MW" 



LIBRARY !«* CONGRESS 
Two Codes Received 

JUL 26 1904 

Cnovrtjjht Entry 
CLASS X «* XXe* No. 

'copy b I 



Copyright, 1904, by 
I. M. HAI/DEMAN. 




Preface. 



This work was formerly issued as ' ' Friday Night 
Papers. ' ' 

A second edition having been called for, the name has 
been changed to that of the leading article, " How To 
Study The Bible. ' ' Some two hundred pages have been 
added and the order of contents considerably changed. 
The original title was due to a series of letters written 
and sent to the Friday Evening Meetings of the Church 
during the summer vacation. The last four articles are 
simply notes of sermons preached in the First Church 
pulpit. The one on the " Second Coming " was deliv- 
ered' as an address before the Baptist Ministers' Con- 
ference. ' ' The Imminent Coming ' ' appeared in the 
Examiner. The other contents are made up of Bible 
lessons and expositions given from time to time in the 
course of a rather full ministry. 

No attempt has been made at sequence. The papers 
are just a handful gathered at random and flung like 
leaves — to be blown about by the winds of God's provi- 
dence — and with the earnest prayer that, in some 
measure like the leaves of the Tree of Iyife, they may 
be for healing and blessing to the souls of men. 

I. M. H. 
New York. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

How to Study the Bible i 

An Address on the Second Coming w . . . 61 

An Address on the Holy Spirit 93 

The Two Natures in 

The So-called Lord's Prayer 135 

Spiritual Growth 143 

Unhesitating Confidence 159 

A New Name 169 

The Indwelling Presence 179 

Abiding in Christ 189 

Consecration of Ability 201 

The Sabbath 209 

Genesis : Fourth and Fifth 225 

The Story of Eliezer and the Bride 243 

The Story of Joseph 255 

The Unrent Veil 293 

The Rent Veil 299 

A Golden Bell and a Pomegranate . » 305 

The Story of Two Birds 317 

The Present or Holy Ghost Age 327 

The Times of the Restitution of All Things 343 

The Book of Jeremiah 375 

The Church 389 

Some Studies in the Book of Ruth 409 

John XI and John XII , , . , 419 

The " Imminent " Coming of Christ 425 

The Syrophenician Woman 447 

The Leaven 453 



CONTENTS— Continued. 

PAGE 

Seven Things About Lot - , 467 

Four Judgments 473 

The Two-Fold Coming 477 

A Bible Reading on Christians 481 

Oneness of Christ and His People. «... 487 

Man's Ruin — God's Remedy 491 

Law and Gospel 495 

The Rod and the Rock 499 

The Rod That Budded. 503 

Outlines of Prophesy 507 

Of Whom I am Chief. 519 

Earthly Things 525 

Moses 533 

Paul 543 

The Delicate Seal and the Day of Redemption 559 

Meet for the Master's Use 571 



HOW TO STUDY THE BIBLE. 



flow (o Study M Bible. 



" Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that 
needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth." 
—II Tim. ii : 15. 



In order to an intelligent and satisfactory study of the 
Bible there are at least eight principles which must be 
applied to it. 

First, we must recognize that the Bible is written to, 
or about distinct classes. 

Second, we must inquire of each Scripture, whether 
book, section, or passage, to whom it is written, and right- 
eously give to each the portion belonging to it. 

Third, we must know Dispensational Truth. 

Fourth, we must put truth in its proper dispensational 
relation. 

Fifth, we must know the distinction between things 
which appear similar, but are different. 

Sixth, we must know the meaning and purport of each 
book of the Bible. 

Seventh, we must know how to divide each book into 
its component parts. 

Eighth, we must recognize that each book finds its 
place by the law of growth and by moral and spiritual 
logic; so that it is impossible to take any book out of its 
place without deranging the whole order of revelation. 

Two other observations may be made, namely : that the 
New Testament is the fulfillment of the Old and there- 
fore many of its books must be, and are, commentaries on 
the Old; and further, that each book has its own key 
**■ hung up by the door. 



2 HOW TO STUDY THE BIBLE. 

DISTINCT CLASSES. 

We must recognize that the Bible is written to, or 
about distinct classes. 

According to the general view everything from Genesis 
to Revelation is written to, or about the church and 
Christians. 

No greater mistake could be made. The truth is, the 
church and Christians occupy a very restrained area of 
the Bible. 

If all that is said directly about the church and Chris- 
tians was printed by itself it would make a very small 
book. 

Not even all of the New Testament is directly written 
to, or about the church. 

In his Epistle to the Corinthians the Apostle speaks of 
Jew, Gentile, and the Church of God. I Corinthians 
x: 32. 

The Bible is written to, or about one or other of these 
classes. Sometimes in the same book there are things 
which belong to all three, or have application to them 
either as object or subject. Sometimes there are books 
which belong to one class and rigidly exclude the others 
either as subject or object. By this is. not meant that all 
Scripture is not profitable for doctrine, reproof, or cor- 
rection, for we are definitely told that all things which 
happened to the Children of Israel happened unto them 
that they might be as types full of instruction to us upon 
whom the ends of the ages have come, and that the whole 
Bible from end to end is intended for the profit and fur- 
nishing of the man of God unto all good works; it is 
meant to say, however, that in every Scripture one or 
other of these classes has priority of claim and that the 
truth must first be considered in the light of its original 



HOW TO STUDY THE BIBLE. 3 

relation before its profit can be more extendedly applied. 
My friend may receive a letter intended exclusively for 
him ; and yet when he hands it to me to read I may dis- 
cover something quite necessary for me to know, some 
lessons and truths well enough for me to apply ; but even 
then I would never dream of claiming that the letter was 
first written to, or about me. 

Each class therefore, Jew, Gentile, and Church of God, 
is the primary subject or object of some particular form 
or accent of truth ; and we must recognize this classifi- 
cation in any endeavor we may make towards the study 
of Holy Scripture. 



TO WHOM IS IT WRITTEN? 

We must inquire of each Scripture to whom it is written 
and give to each class the portion of truth belonging to it. 

We have no right to take truth from one class and give 
it to another : to do so is as much an act of robbery as it 
would be to go into a man's house, steal his coat, and wear 
it forth as ours. And yet this robbery has been carried 
on in the most extensive way by preachers and teachers of 
the Word. 

In no case has this been more marked than in relation 
to the promises of Israel. Whole sections, chapters, and 
passages have been taken bodily from the Jew and trans- 
ferred without compunction to the church and Christians. 

It is a common thing to take the sixtieth chapter of 
Isaiah which speaks of the time when the Jew shall be 
the head and no longer the tail of nations ; when Jerusa- 
lem shall be exalted as the capital of the whole earth and 
the wealth of the Gentiles like a rising tide shall pour 
into it; it is common to take all this and apply it to the 
church and Christians. 



4 HOW TO STUDY THE BIBLE. 

Again and again it is read in Missionary meetings 
and preached from as the assurance given by God Him- 
self that the world will be converted by the Gospel and 
the church exalted to reign in glory over all nations. 
Mount Zion is made to mean the church. Jews mean 
Christians, and the Gentiles coming in with their riches 
the vast multitude of converts yielding to the truth of the 
Word, the conviction of the Spirit, and the power of mis- 
sionary zeal. 

And for all this not a single ground or warrant. The 
Jew is never called a Christian any more than he is known 
as a Gentile, nor has Mount Zion any more reason to be 
called the church than Bunker Hill to stand for West- 
minster Abbey. Out of this robbery a whole system of 
modern theology lives and thrives, finding its only sus- 
tenance in the plunder it has obtained by taking from the 
Jew the promises which God has so solemnly given to 
him, and to him alone. 

When you receive a letter, the first thing to do is to look 
at its superscription, find out to whom it is addressed, and 
respect that address by giving it to the owner. 

Such a procedure would save from the disastrous re- 
sults of misplacing truth; and that this misplacement is 
disastrous is in evidence. 

I heard an earnest sermon from the text, "Work out 
your own salvation with fear and trembling/' The 
preacher with the profoundest conviction that he was 
doing the will of God echoed the thunders of Sinai and 
belched its lightnings over the heads of his hearers, in- 
sisting that in order to salvation each soul must toil 
and labor with strong crying and tears to win the Di- 
vine favor, and then tremble at the last, lest with all 
its efforts it should fail to win the salvation it had so 



HOW TO STUDY THE BIBLE. 5 

laboriously sought. If the preacher had inquired as to 
whom this exhortation was written he would have been 
delivered from the misplacement of truth and the dark- 
ening of counsel with words without knowledge. The 
text in question occurs in an epistle. It is written to 
those who are saved, to those whose names are in the 
Book of Life. It is written to the church at Philippi 
and is an exhortation to those who by the grace of God 
already possess salvation to work it out. It is not 
an exhortation to work to salvation but from it. It is 
an exhortation to take this salvation and work it out 
in our daily lives in such fashion that God may be glori- 
fied in us ; trembling, that is to say filled with a sense 
of carefulness lest in any manner we should obscure the 
glory of our salvation, but at the same time fully assured 
in our endeavor to live the Christian life by the fact that 
in all our working, "it is God that worketh in us to 
will and do of His own good pleasure." 

Take up the Epistle to the Corinthians. 

There are many things said in that portion of Scrip- 
ture which commentators endeavor to explain by local 
conditions, such as the order of the ordinances, prayer, 
and the public attitude of women in the churches. A 
glance at the superscription will demonstrate that the 
book is anything but local. The superscription reads : 
"to all who in every pl ACS call upon the name of our 
Lord Jesus Christ." So far from being local therefore the 
application is as much to Galatia, Rome, or Ephesus. It 
is as much for the Twentieth Century as the First, as 
much for New York as for Corinth. 

In the Epistle of James there are some marked things 
about the calling together of the elders and the anoint- 
ing with oil. This epistle is written to the TWELVE TRIBES 



6 HOW TO STUDY THE BIBLE. 

scattered abroad. A reading of its contents in the light 
of its superscription might change certain expositions not 
altogether excuseless for the vagaries of "faith healing." 

The Book of the Revelation is not infrequently char- 
acterized as dark, difficult to understand and wholly 
impracticable. And yet the title of the book ought to 
contradict all such judgment, seeing that it is actually 
called the Apokalupsis, which signifies the unveiling, 
the revealing; while the superscription testifies as to its 
most practical character not only by the constantly re- 
iterated exhortation, "He that hath an ear to hear, let 
him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches," but by 
the superscription itself; for that superscription is "The 
Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave to Him, to 
show unto His servants." 

His servants are His workmen, working in His Word ; 
and as He through an Apostle exhorts them to so di- 
vide that Word that they may not be ashamed before 
H^im but be approved at His coming, it may be said with- 
out fear of controversy that He could not send a specially 
inspired, impracticable, and incomprehensible message 
to these servants. 

The superscription then manifests that the book is for 
practical purposes and that he who takes it up with the 
inquiry on his lips, "To whom is this written," will 
find in the clearness of the answer the justification of 
the Apostle's exhortation to rightly divide the Word of 
Truth. 

"Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman 
that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the 
Word of Truth." II Timothy ii ; 15, 



HOW TO STUDY THE BIBLE. 7 

DISPENSATIONAL TRUTH. 

No matter what may be the equipment of the Chris- 
tian, no matter what intellectual, moral, or spiritual en- 
dowment he may have, unless he understands dispensa- 
tional truth he will never fully lay hold of Bible doc- 
trine; while many of the wondrous testimonies of the 
Word will be unto him but as the tangled threads in an 
endless labyrinth. 

The warrant for the word "Dispensation" is to be found 
in Ephesians iii : 2., and Colossians i: 25. 

The Greek word for dispensation is oikonomia, from 
which we get our English word economy, system, ad- 
ministration. 

Such a word carries with it necessarily the idea of 
time, a period, an epoch, or age. 

From the Bible point of view a dispensation is a defi- 
nite period or epoch in which God makes manifest some 
characteristic dealing with man ; dealing in one age or 
epoch distinctly from that of another and with different 
individuals or classes; revealing in each of these dis- 
tinct dealings and administrations various and separate 
principles, various objectives and purposes. 

To confound these dispensations, to take the principle 
of action revealed in one and apply it indiscriminately 
to another, to ignore the classes of persons and the pe- 
culiar aim of each dispensation is to produce confusion, 
contradiction, and lay the foundation for that disharmony 
which reigns all too manifestly to-day among Christian 
expositors. 

There are eight dispensations, each having a stated 
point of departure, and an equally defined place of end- 
ing. 

The: Edenic Dispensation, beginning at Genesis i: 



8 HOW TO STUDY THB BIBLE. 

26, with the creation of man, and ending at Genesis iii : 
24, with the expulsion of man. 

In this dispensation man is seen as innocent, but un- 
tried. 

He is at once tested for headship and as the expression 
of God's governmental authority in the earth. God tests 
him in His word and declared will. The actual test is 
whether man will abide by, and rest in what God has 
said, or lean to his own understanding. Whether he 
will take the Word of God or the dictates of reason as 
the standard and rule of his life. 

The instrument of the test is necessarily the tree of 
knowledge ; the agent in the test is that Old Serpent which 
is called Satan and the Devil. 

Satan puts the test in the form of a temptation. The 
temptation is made by raising a question as to what God 
has said. 

He does not at first openly deny God's Word, he acts 
in a very much more modern and hypercritical way; he 
simply suggests a doubt as to its authenticity: ''Hath God 
said?" 

That is to say, is this so, is it really after all the Word 
of God? Then he criticises the unreasonableness of the 
statement, makes light of its threatenings, swiftly passes 
on to its open denial and repudiation, and finally declares 
that man ought to act independently, and for himself. 
Man yields to the Devil's subtlety and believes his lie 
rather than God's truth. He puts sight in the place of 
faith, exalts his own will instead of the will of God, and 
by this gets that from which God would have delivered 
him, the knowledge of sin. 

The Edenic dispensation then is man tested and found 
self-willed rather than God-willed. 



HO W TO STUDY THE BIBLE. g 

The Antediluvian Dispensation begins at Genesis 
iv : i, with the birth of Cain, and ends at Genesis viii : 
3, with the subsidence of the flood. 

Man is here without law and under the reign of con- 
science, conscience coming in not as an original endow- 
ment from God, but as an evidence of sin, and as its 
Nemesis. 

There is no restraint put upon the flesh. The flesh 
is allowed of God to work itself out. It does work itself 
out till it becomes a stench in the nostrils of God. 

God's testimony in the Edenic dispensation is the tree 
as seen in Genesis ii: 16, 17. In the Antediluvian dis- 
pensation the testimony is the Ark, as indicated in He- 
brews xi: 7. 

The Antediluvian dispensation gives us man turned 
over to his own will. 

In this dispensation we have a declaration concerning 
the operation of the Spirit which illustrates the distinct- 
ive attitude of God in different dispensations and em- 
phasizes the necessity of knowing dispensational appli- 
cation for truth. In Genesis vi : 3, it is written : "And 
the Lord said, my Spirit shall not always strive with 
man." 

The text is applied again and again in our times to 
awaken, to alarm, and to exhort the sluggish sinner to 
lay hold on the grace of God. And he is assured that if 
he does not so lay hold the Spirit of God will take his 
"sad flight" and leave him forever. 

Such teaching is in itself absolutely pernicious, op- 
posed to the whole trend of this dispensation, contra- 
dictory to the Grace of God; and he who so teaches 
makes manifest that he is fumbling with instead of ex- 
pounding the Word of God. An examination of the pas- 



io HOW TO STUDY THE BIBLE. 

sage in question will show that it belongs exclusively to 
the Antediluvian, dispensation and can belong nowhere 
else. According to Genesis third this striving took place 
in the days of Noah. It was to last One Hundred and 
Twenty years. It was to last till the flood came. 

It was to last during the testimony of warning that 
God should give the antediluvians, and did so last till 
the Antediluvian dispensation itself ended. The doc- 
trine here taught in general is that the striving of the 
Spirit is limited, not individually, but dispensationally, 
and that this particular striving concerns the Antedi- 
luvian dispensation alone, that it can in no way support 
the theory that the Spirit plays fast and loose with the 
sinner in this hour of grace. Own this doctrine of the 
striving of the Spirit as belonging to the age of Noah, 
keep it there that it may not uselessly invade and spoil 
the truth of the Spirit in this age, and in doing that the 
order of dispensational distinction will be maintained. 

The: Patriarchal, Dispensation begins at Genesis 
viii : 1 8, with the going- forth of Noah out of the Ark, and 
ends at Genesis 1 : 26, with the death of Joseph. 

God is now seen dealing with selected families and 
ruling for righteousness in the headship thereof, that is 
to say through the father, the father being the depository 
of revelation, and standing for the family in responsi- 
bility to God. The characteristic principle is election. 
God looks upon the world of idolators and alone of His 
good pleasure selects Abraham to be the beginning of the 
Family of Faith in the earth. (Joshua xxiv : 2, 3.) 

This dispensation presents us with four forms of spir- 
itual life as illustrated in the four Patriarchs. 

In Abraham you have Faith. 

In Isaac, the fruit of faith which is Sonship. 



HO IV TO STUDY THE BIBLE. n 

In Jacob, the fruit of sonship which is Service. 

In Joseph the fruit of service, that is to say Glory and 
Rule. 

The Mosaic Dispensation begins* at Exodus xiv: 22, 
with the going-forth of the Children of Israel out of 
Egypt, and ends at Matthew xi : 13, with the coming of 
John the Baptist. 

As in a previous dispensation God called out and sep- 
arated unto Himself one family, even as in the dispensa- 
tion previous to that He had called into view one man, 
so now He calls out and separates unto Himself one 
nation. He calls it out to be the memorial of His grace, 
the witness of His unity, and the inheritor of His uncon- 
ditional covenant. 

The nation despises Grace and puts itself under Law, 
and henceforth the Law becomes the basis of relationship 
between Israel and God. The Sabbath is for the first 
time given as a commandment, and thus both the Law 
and the Sabbath belong exclusively and dispensationally 
to Israel. 

To take the Law and the Sabbath out of the Mosaic 
dispensation and enforce them in this age and dispensa- 
tion of the church and Spirit is as ^excuseless a bit of 
confounding as it would be to teach in our public schools 
that the period of discovery in American history cor- 
responded in all principles and applications with the 
period of colonization. It would be just as sensible to 
place the battle of Bunker Hill and the landing of Co- 
lumbus in the same year as to put Mount Sinai in the 
same dispensation with Calvary. 

The Messianic Dispensation begins at John i: 28, 
31, with the Baptism of Jesus, and ends at John xix: 30, 
with the Cross, 



12 HOW TO STUDY THH BIBLE. 

God manifests Himself in the flesh. He comes down 
in His Son and fulfills the covenant promise made to 
Israel. (Matthew xv : 24. Romans xv : 8. Galatians iv: 

4, 5-) 

As a messenger of the covenant Christ comes only 

to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, characteristically 

refuses to listen to the Gentile woman when she appeals 

to Him on Jewish ground, and bids His disciples not 

to go into the way of, nor to preach the good news of the 

Messiah to any of the Gentiles. 

The: Holy Ghost Dispensation begins secretly, at 
John xx : 22, with the breathing on of the Holy Ghost, 
and thus the coming of the Comforter. It begins pub- 
licly, at Acts ii: 1-4, with the coming of the Holy Ghost 
to Israel as the Power promised to them through the 
prophet Joel. It ends secretly, at I Thessalonians v : 2, 
with the Rapture, or sudden, secret Translation of the 
church into the air to meet the Parousia of Christ, and 
ends publicly, at Revelation xix: 11-20; xx: 1-2, with the 
appearing of Christ and the binding of Satan. 

God at once begins dealing with man in grace on the 
basis of the cross as a sacrifice for sin, and invites to 
faith in a Risen and Ascended Man. 

Having concluded the whole world under sin and set 
aside the Jew nationally, He no longer deals with na- 
tions as such, but with individuals, and through the 
Gospel and the .Spirit is calling them out of all nations 
to form a peculiar body, the Church, the spiritual temple, 
the habitation and dwelling place of God on earth. 

The object of this dispensation is not the conversion 
of the world but the calling-out of it those who from 
before its foundation were ordained to eternal life and 
glory. 



HOW TO STUDY THE BIBLE. 13 

To that end the Gospel is to be a proclamation made in 
all the world, and to every creature. 

The dispensation of the Holy Ghost stands over against 
the Messianic in this that while in the Messianic he is 
seen walking on the earth in the flesh, in this dispensation 
He is no longer seen, and yet through the Spirit just as 
really walks it as though He were flesh clothed before 
our very eyes. He is on the throne as to body, the Man 
in the Glory, but by the proxy of the Spirit is in the 
church, and individually in every person who has been 
made a partaker of His life. 

The question of sin having been settled at the cross 
according to the demands of Divine righteousness, of 
which the resurrection of Christ is the infallible witness, 
it is no longer the Sin question but the Son question 
which is at issue between God and man. "What think ye 
of Christ, whose Son is He ?" That is the supreme ques- 
tion on the answer of which turns all of heaven or hell. 

In this dispensation it is not a question of what you 
are, but what Christ is. And the Grace of God is so 
absolute, the power of the Holy Ghost is so imminent 
that it is written : "If thou shalt confess with thy mouth 
the Lord Jesus, and believe in thine heart that God 
h'ath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved." 
Romans x : 9. 

Under no other dispensation can or will such conditions 
of salvation prevail. 

The Dispensation of the Times oe Restitution 
begins with the Appearing of Christ and the Binding of 
Satan, and ends according to I Corinthians xv: 24, when 
Christ as the Second Man, the Last Adam, shall deliver 
up the world restored and regenerated to the Father. 

This dispensation has two parts : 



14 HOW TO STUDY THE B1BLB. 

1. The Thousand Years, or the Millennium. 

2. After the Thousand Years. 

The Thousand Years begin with the binding of Satan, 
at Revelation xx : I, 2, and end at Revelation xx : 7, with 
the loosing of Satan. 

The Thousand Years is exclusively the Day of Christ, 
while the whole period of the Times of Restitution in- 
clusive of the Thousand Years is the Day of the Lord, 
the Last Day. 

In the Thousand Years Jerusalem is the Capital of the 
world, Christ is the King of Israel and the King of 
nations, and personally and visibly seated in Jerusalem 
rules through united Israel as the ordained head of the 
nations over the whole earth. 

It is a time not of grace, but righteousness. The Lord 
rules with a rod of iron and dashes in pieces as a potter's 
vessel. The people learn righteousness not by the Gos- 
pel, but by judgments. 

It is the display and administration of a pure govern- 
ment in the hands of a righteous Man. It is the king- 
dom come upon earth. It is the kingdom whose source 
of power is heaven, and not earth. 

After the Thousand Years, is undefined as to length. 

In it Satan is loosed, tests the flesh finally, brings out 
its failure under any and all circumstances, and himself 
meets the eternal doom. The fourth and last Judgment, 
the judgment of the White Throne is set up, there is a 
great conflagration, the second resurrection, a new 
Genesis, and then the restored and regenerated earth is 
handed back to God with more of gain than Adam ever 
lost, while Christ takes His place as the Father of the 
Everlasting Age, as that God who is to be All and in All. 

The whole period inclusive of the Millennium is a 



HO IV TO STUDY THE BIBLE. 15 

period of "putting down all rule and authority" under 
the feet of God and God's Man. 

The Eternal State, or Dispensation, begins at Rev- 
elation xxi: 1, and ends, NEVER. 

Christ is God in All, and is characteristically man- 
ifested as "The Father of the Everlasting Age." (Isaiah 
ix:6.) 

Righteousness has at last found a home. In the Mil- 
lennium righteousness "reigned," but in the Eternal state, 
under the New Heavens and the New Earth it "dwells." 
Paradise is no longer a garden spot of earth but the 
whole shining globe, and the Paradise Lost has been for- 
gotten in the Paradise Regained. Sin and sorrow, sick- 
ness and death are forever banished, and God is with men 
to wipe away the memory of every tear. 

God has got His own world again, and no longer 
merely in the might of that creation over which the morn- 
ing stars sang together and the sons of God shouted 
for joy, but in the value of the redeeming blood of His 
dear Son. Henceforth, He is the unfoldment of the Eter- 
nal Father, as the Church is the eternal disclosure of the 
Son. Israel is the Memorial Nation in eternity, bearing 
witness of God's covenant faithfulness in time. The 
nations of them that are saved are transformed into the 
men with whom God lives, and over all is written that 
unspeakable decree "that of the Increase of this govern- 
ment of the Father by the Son there shall be NO END." 

A perfect world, the witness of God's perfect love and 
grace, in which the face of Christ with all its measureless 
glories shall still be the face of Him whom we know as 
Jesus of Nazareth ; a world amid whose splendors the 
Church shall always be exalted as above things in heaven 
or things in earth; a world where Christians shall be 



16 HOW TO STUDY THE BIBLE. 

the trophies of infinite love, the objects of God's eternal 
kindness through riches of grace in Christ Jesus our 
Lord ; and where with Him we shall shine as the supreme 
sons of God, the rulers of the universe, the God-men, the 
aristocrats, the best ones of eternity; where finally, our 
lives in the full rhythm of God's accomplished purpose 
concerning us shall constantly utter in every deed, or 
word, or thought, in every essence of our being, ascrip- 
tions of praise and glory to Him who redeemed us by 
His precious blood and made us to be that New Hu- 
manity which is the eternal enthronement of God, the 
synonym, the symbol of life and joy, of peace and power, 
absolute, and forever. 

One characteristic is common to each time dispensa- 
tion ; each ends in the failure of man under responsibility. 

In Eden he fails under responsibility to the Word. 

In the Antediluvian dispensation he fails under re- 
sponsibility to Conscience. 

In the Patriarchal, under responsibility to Fatherhood. 

In the Mosaic, under responsibility to Law. 

In the Messianic, under responsibility to Incarnation. 

In the Holy Ghost, to the Gospel. 

In the Millennial, to the King of Righteousness. 

At the close of each of these dispensations God gives 
man up to his own way. 

In the Edenic, He gave him up to the knowledge of 
Sin. 

In the Antediluvian, He gave him up to the Imagina- 
tions of Evil. 

In the Patriarchal, He gave him up to the Food of 
Egypt. 

In the Mosaic, He gave him up to Formalism. 

In the Messianic, to Judicial Blindness. 



HOW TO STUDY THE BIBLE. i7 

In the Holy Ghost, to the Love of the World. 

In the Millennial, to the Going after Satan. * 

At the close of each dispensation God takes off the 
restraint of evil and allows it to head itself up in some 
particular form for Judgment. 

In the Edenic, it heads itself up in a Fallen Woman. 

In the Antediluvian, in Sinful Angels. 

In the Patriarchal, in the king who knew not God. 

In the Mosaic, in the Hypocrisy of Scribes and Phar- 
isees. 

In the Messianic, in Judas. 

In the Holy Ghost, in Antichrist. 

In the Millennial, in Satan. 

Each dispensation ends with a great World Crisis. 

In the Edenic, the great world crisis is the Expulsion 
of Man. 

In the Antediluvian, it is the Flood. 

In the Patriarchal, it is the Bondage of the Chosen 
People. 

In the Mosaic, it is the Beheading of John the Baptist. 

In the Messianic, the Cross of Christ. 

In the Holy Ghost, the Rapture of the Church. 

In the Millennial, the Binding of Satan. 

After the Thousand Years there is the Judgment on 
Satan, the Great Conflagration, the Second Resurrec- 
tion, and the Second Death, a Climax of Crises. 

It must be evident as already intimated and illustrated 
that these dispensations include a wide variety of char- 
acteristic dealings and principles, and that it is absolutely 
necessary not only to know the outlines of these 
dealings and principles, but to be able to classify 
Truth in its several relations to them. Indeed, the class- 
ification of Dispensational Truth affords a distinct subject 
in itself, 



18 HOW TO STUDY THE BIBLE. 

It is sufficient to say that careful examination and 
prayerful consideration will show whole bodies of truth 
which belong exclusively to one dispensation and not to 
another; and that failure to put them in their proper 
dispensational relation means as great a disaster to that 
body or bodies of truth as the disarticulation of its 
members would be to the human body. 

CLASSIFICATION OF DISPENSATIONAL 

TRUTH. 

It is not only necessary to know the Dispensations, 
but eminently important to keep truth in its proper dis- 
pensational relation. To put the truth applicable to one 
dispensation into another is to risk confusion, and not 
only theological, but spiritual death. 

Take, for example, the imprecatory psalms, as indi- 
cated in Psalms lviii: 10; cxxxvii: 8, 9. 

These Scriptures are full of imprecation and breathe 
the spirit not of forgiveness but vengeance on the enemy. 

This spirit seems such a contradiction to the age in 
which we live, such a contradiction to the attitude of 
love grace and forgiveness occupied by the church that 
many efforts have been made by good Christians to rec- 
oncile them with the teachings of Christianity; others 
rinding the attempt useless have been led to expurgate 
them altogether from their Bibles. 

Now it is indisputably true that the spirit of impreca- 
tion and vengeance is absolutely contradictory to the 
present spirit and mission of the church, but it is not 
contradictory to God's mind nor to His intended deal- 
ings. There is a period coming when the Lord will 
be King over all the earth, when He will rule not in 



HOW TO STUDY THE BIBLE. 19 

grace, but with a rod of iron, when He will no longer 
be full of long-suffering and forbearance, but will 
dash in pieces as a potter's vessel. A time is coming 
when the people of the earth shall learn righteousness, 
not by the preaching of the Gospel but by sudden judg- 
ments on the guilty. Isaiah xxvi : 9. Revelation ii : 25- 
29. 

At that period the idea will be righteousness and not 
grace. 

Instead of listening to appeals for mercy He will bend 
His ear to catch the invocations to judgment. It will 
not be the principle of vengeance but of vindication, .not 
cruelty of feeling but justification of law; a dealing just 
as much in place then as it would be out of place now. 

Apply the imprecatory psalms to this age and there is 
complete contradiction, put them where they belong in 
the Millennial era, and there is order, the order of the 
distinct dealings which God Himself reveals. 

In Isaiah lx: 1, 3, 11, 12, we have a passage that is 
again and again applied to the church, being used to set 
forth the triumph of the Gospel, and the recompense of 
missionary zeal. But an examination of the statement 
in Galatians iii : 2J, 28, will show that the passage cannot 
be related to the church, and does not belong to this dis- 
pensation. 

Galatians tells us that in Christ there is neither "Jew 
nor Gentile." That is to say in the church all national 
distinctions disappear. But in the quotation from Isaiah 
the distinction of Jew and Gentile is particularly empha- 
sized. The prophet is therefore not speaking of the 
church but of Israel in the last days after the church has 
been translated ; he is speaking of that time in the Millen- 
nial Dispensation when the Jew shall be the head of the 



20 HOW TO STUDY THE BIB LB. 

nations and when the Gentiles shall bring in their wealth 
to support him. 

If you turn to Zechariah xiv: 16-19, 20, 9, 8, 4, 3, you 
will find that National Thanksgiving does not belong 
to this age but to the Day of Christ In that day the 
nation that does not send its representatives to Jerusa- 
lem to pray before the Lord and return thanks for bless- 
ings will be smitten in field and harvests. 

Dispensational classification gives point and place of 
application to the prayer of the Holy Spirit. 

In the very nature of the case if the Holy Spirit is in 
the church, if He is here as the executive of the Godhead 
and the all-potent administrator of the church, the seal 
of the individual Christian, then we are not warranted, 
but rather forbidden to pray for the coming or outpour- 
ing of the Spirit. 

And yet we have a Scripture in Luke xi: 13, which 
definitely, and by no less an utterance than that of the 
Lord Jesus Christ Himself authorizes a prayer for the 
Holy Spirit: 

"If ye then being evil know how to give good gifts 
unto your children; how much more shall your heavenly 
Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him." 

Is there a contradiction here? 

If dispensational classification is not observed there 
will be. 

Turn to John vii : 37-39. "But this spake He of the 
Spirit which they that believe on Him should receive : for 
the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was 
not yet glorified." 

Jesus was not yet glorified, that is to say He was not 
yet crucified and raised from the dead. He had not yet 
ascended into heaven as the Risen Man, of which im- 



HOW TO STUDY THE BIBLE. 21 

mense event the descent of the Holy Ghost was to be the 
indisputable evidence. The dispensation which gives us 
the Holy Ghost as an abiding guest in the hearts of be- 
lievers had not yet come. The moment in which the Lord 
spoke was yet that of the Messianic dispensation, it was 
therefore perfectly justifiable to offer the prayer then, 
just as it would be thoroughly unjustifiable and contra- 
dictory now. 

The one settling thing, the one thing that puts an end 
to all controversy is in the authoritative phrase: "The 
Holy Ghost was not yet given." 

Dispensational classification explains the place of what 
is commonly known as "The Lord's Prayer." 

That prayer belongs in the closing hours of this dis- 
pensation when the church is gone and when the elect 
Remnant among the Jews suffering under the persecution 
of the "Wilful" king call on God to deliver them from 
the horror of his rule, deliver them from the Great Trib- 
ulation and the power of this "Evil One," give them the 
daily bread which Antichrist makes it impossible for them 
to touch without sin, and bring in the long-promised 
kingdom of the Messiah. The prayer belongs essen- 
tially in that part of the present dispensation because 
grace will be gone and law and righteousness will be in 
vogue. 

In Matthew xxv: 31-44, there is a picture of the com- 
ing of Christ, and the gathering before Him to judgment 
of all nations. 

This judgment has been expounded as the last judg- 
ment and the scene set forth as the resurrection of the 
dead. 

Not only is there no thought of resurrection in the 
passage, but strict examination will show that the Chris- 
tian does not appear in it at all. 



22 HOW TO STUDY THE BIBLE. 

Nations are there, and they are judged, not according 
to the relation they have held to the Gospel but rather 
according to the manner in which they have treated the 
"Brethren of Christ." The brethren of Christ in this 
case as cognate scriptures demonstrate are the Jews, the 
elect remnant who escape out of the hands of the Anti- 
christ. As these nations, principally the nations of Eu- 
rope have treated the Jew, so will they be dealt with and 
judged in that hour of hours, "before the Son of Man." 

The place of this judgment is in order at the commence- 
ment of the Millennial dispensation, and at least seven 
years after the Judgment Seat of Christ before which 
the church stands after her resurrection and rapture. 

Dispensational order is remarkably set before us in 
Acts xv : 14-18. 

"God at the first did visit the Gentiles, to take out of 
them a people for His name — . After this I Will Return, 
and will build again the tabernacle of David — ." 

This is the order as dispensationally indicated by the 
Spirit : 

1. God is now in this dispensation of the Holy Ghost 
"taking out" a people for His name. It is therefore the 
dispensation of the Taking Out, the Calling Out, the 
Called Out Ones, the Church. It is not the time of pell- 
mell conversion to Christ, but the calling out from among 
all peoples kindreds and tongues, here and there, an in- 
dividual to faith and life in Christ. 

2. "After this," after the calling out of the church, He 
will return and build up the house of David. That is to 
say, He will set up and establish the Jewish economy in 
the earth. 

The church for this dispensation. 
The Jew for the next. 



HOW TO STUDY THE BIBLE. 23 

.That is the Divine Order. 

The distinctive value of dispensational truth may be 
seen by contrasting the dispensation of the Holy Ghost 
with the Mosaic dispensation. 

In the Mosaic dispensation, God dealt nationally. 

In the Holy Ghost dispensation, He deals individually. 

In the Mosaic dispensation, He dealt with one nation. 

Ih the Holy Ghost dispensation, He deals among all 
nations. 

In the Mosaic dispensation, He brought in the Jew, 
and shut out the Gentiles. 

In the Holy Ghost dispensation, He brings in the Gen- 
tiles, and shuts out the Jew. 

In the Mosaic dispensation, God dealt according to 
man's work. 

In the Holy Ghost dispensation, He deals according 
to Christ's work. 

In the Mosaic dispensation, God dealt on the basis of 
Law. 

In the Holy Ghost dispensation, He deals on the basis 
of Grace. 

In the Mosaic dispensation, God said : "Do, and live." 

In the Holv Ghost dispensation, He says : "Live, and 
do." 

In the Mosaic dispensation, the Law brought a work 
for man to do. 

In the Holy Ghost dispensation, the Gospel brings a 
Word for man to believe. 

In the Mosaic dispensation, all is summed up in a word 
of two letters. "Do." 

In the Holy Ghost dispensation, all is summed up in a 
word of four letters, "Done." 

The attempt to put Christians and Gentiles under the 



H HOW TO STUDY THE BIBLS. 

law of Moses in this dispensation gave this country the 
witchcraft of Salem, and such modern misnomers as 
Christian Sabbath, and American Sabbath. 

Law is right in its place and for a people on earth in 
the flesh, and it is to be remembered that the law is always 
for the sinful man in the flesh, but it is out of place and 
all wrong for a Christian, one who is in Christ and no 
longer seen of God as in the flesh, but risen, ascended 
and seated with Christ in heavenly places. 

The Priesthood of Christ illustrates dispensational 
truth and makes manifest that the Christian is not under 
the Mosaic Law, or dispensation. 

In Hebrews viii: 4, it is written: "If He (Jesus) were 
on earth He should not be a priest." 

In Hebrews vii: 12-14, the reason is given: "Our Lord 
sprang out of Juda : of which tribe Moses spake nothing 
concerning priesthood." 

Priesthood on earth belongs to the tribe of Levi, and 
is for those who are under the Law. 

The Priesthood of Christ belongs in heaven, and is for 
those only who are joined to Him as the man risen from 
the dead, ascended and seated in the glory. 

The Christian who goes under the law, goes under the 
Levitical priesthood ; as Christ is a priest only for those 
who are judicially dead, risen and ascended in Him to 
heavenly places, then the Christian who goes under the 
law shuts himself out from the priesthood of Christ. 

Thus a knowledge of the dispensational place of 
Christ's Priesthood would settle all controversy as to the 
Christian's relation to the law. 

But more than this, it would settle all controversy about 
sacerdotalism and make a separate priesthood in the 
church impossible. And this is self-evident. According 



HOW TO STUDY THE BIBLE. 2$ 

to Holy Scripture, Christ never was a priest on earth. 
He could not, He would not be a priest if He were on 
earth to-day. By what law has any one who wears the 
name of Christ the right or authority to claim priest- 
hood apart from, or in any other sense than that in which 
all are spiritual priests. 

Accept dispensational distinction and prelacy in the 
church is at an end. 

Dispensational classification can alone save Truth from 
contradicting itself. 

Take for example, Romans xi : 26, and Romans xi : 28, 
read them in the light of the proposition that there is no 
such thing as dispensational truth or that both verses be- 
long to the same period, and you have a contradiction 
that all the ingenuity or piety of men cannot excuse, or 
minimize, for Romans xi: 26, declares that "All Israel 
shall be saved," while Romans xi : 28, asserts with equal 
force that "As concerning the Gospel, they are enemies." 

But put verse 28 in this dispensation and all the facts 
of history and experience will demonstrate its truth. 
Put verse 26 in the Millennial age, the age that will fol- 
low this, and you will see that the nation of Israel is 
saved, as the Apostle Paul was saved, by the personal 
Appearing of Jesus Christ in glory. 

Thus dispensationally classified the two verses harmo- 
nize instead of clashing. 

Take Isaiah ii: 1-4, "In the last days — nation shall not 
lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war 
any more." 

Read II Timothy iii : 1, "In the last days perilous times 
shall come." 

Apply these "last days" to the same dispensation and 
there is a contradiction that cannot be explained away. 



26 HOW TO STUDY THE BIBLE. 

Read carefully the passage in Isaiah with the context 
and you will see that the last days of blessing are in- 
troduced by judgments which other scriptures show take 
place at the coming of Christ. And thus the last days 
of blessing in the Old Testament actually follozv the 
Coming of Christ. 

Read the statement in the Epistle to Timothy and you 
will find that the last days of peril and suffering, of war 
and apostasy, precede the Coming of the Lord. 

Put the coming of the Lord between these two classes 
of last days and they fall naturally into their proper dis- 
pensations. This dispensation will end with perilous 
times in Church and State, a general apostasy and smash- 
up, at the climax of which the Lord will come and smite 
the earth for its sin and failure under responsibility to 
grace. Then when the Lord is come the new dispensa- 
tion of the Millennium will open in blessing and peace. 
Thus the passage in Timothy refers to the closing hours 
of this age. 

Dispensationally classified and related, harmony flashes 
forth from that which otherwise is the centre of discord. 

Attention to dispensational order will prevent the ex- 
cuseless blunder about the church going through the 
Tribulation. 

There are those who teach this to the dishonor of 
grace and the confusion of the Christian mind. 

The Spirit seems to have taken particular care that this 
blunder should not occur. I,n Scripture the Tribulation 
is specially qualified as in relation to God's earthly people 
the Jews, and not to the church. In Jeremiah xxx: 7, 
the Tribulation is definitely called "The Day of Jacob's 
Trouble." Read also Isaiah lxvi : 8. In Matthew xxiv : 
16, we are told by our Lord that the scene of the Tribula- 



HOW TO STUDY THE BIBLE. 27 

tion will be "In Judea:'' verse 20, speaks about flight on 
"The Sabbath Day;" and all the nomenclature is of a 
people under the Mosaic law. But Romans vi : 14, pos- 
itively declares that the church is not under the law. 
This last statement then being so, and those who are to 
pass through the Tribulation being under the law, under 
the Sabbath covenant, and unequivocally declared to be 
Jacob, or the people of Israel, it follows that the church 
is never referred to in any matter involving the Tribula- 
tion. 

There are other and direct declarations such as Rev- 
elation iii : 10, and the picture of the church in heaven 
during the whole course of the Tribulation as given in 
the book of Revelation from the fourth chapter to the 
nineteenth which settles the question; but the moment 
the Bible student recognizes that the Law and the Sab- 
bath are not for the church and that the whole earth and 
not Judea is her arena when in the world, he will see the 
utter impossibility and absurdity of that doctrine which 
makes the Christian to go through the Tribulation as a 
sort of earthly purgatory anticipative to heavenly glory. 
He will see as in the case of Lot in Sodom that tribulation 
and judgment will not fall till the church has been clean 
"taken out" of the world. 

The same classification will save from the equally ab- 
surd mistake of making the 144,000 of Revelation 14th 
stand for the church, and on that chapter building certain 
impossible and confusing doctrines. 

The opening verse of the chapter shows this select and 
numbered company on Mount Zion. To the student of 
Scripture that word Zion ought to end all controversy. 
Zion is never the church even by the wildest allowance 
of imagination or "accommodation," invariably signifies 



2& MOW TO STUDY THE B1BLB. 

the place itself, and stands only for Jewish thought and 
dealing. Of course a proper investigation and division 
of the book of Revelation makes it quite impossible to fall 
into the error of calling those who are declared in the 
seventh chapter to be the people of Israel, the church. 
But independently of all this, dispensational knowledge 
would save from such a mixture of things in heaven and 
in earth. 

Passage after passage might be further cited to show 
that classification of truth according to dispensational 
distinction results in the light of a full dawn upon the 
divine pages, and touches every chord of revelation into 
perfect harmony. 

Enough, however, has been said to show that knowl- 
edge of dispensational truth and ability to relate each 
truth to its own dispensation is absolutely necessary for 
him who would lay hold of the treasures of the Word, 
or reveal them to others. 

DISTINCTION BETWEEN THINGS WHICH 
APPEAR SIMILAR. 

We must know and maintain the distinction between 
things which though apparently similar are quite distinct. 

This principle is simply an emphasis of what has been 
said largely under the head of classification of Dispensa- 
tional Truth, the classification, however, sometimes fall- 
ing inside of similar dispensations. 

As an example of passages which are quite different 
although commonly confounded, examine, Luke xxi : 24, 
and Romans xi : 25. _ The first reads : * 'Jerusalem shall 
be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the 
Gentile be fulfilled." 



HOW TO STUDY THE BIBLE. 29 

The second reads : ''Blindness in part is happened to 
Israel until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in." 

"The times of the Gentiles" signify the rule of the 
Gentile nations. That rule began as owned of God in 
Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon. At that hour God 
set the Jew aside because of evil and sin against Him 
and brought in the Gentile governmentally. That rule 
as owned of God continued on down through the Roman 
Empire; it continues to-day trampling Jerusalem and 
the Jew under foot, making the once Holy city the cap- 
ital of the False prophet, and denying Him who is the 
King and whose that city is ; this rule will continue 
until the Gentile nations of the old Roman earth under 
Antichrist shall once more be gathered about Jerusalem; 
then Christ and His church previously caught up will 
come to the Mount of Olives to overthrow him, put an 
end to his confederacy, write finale upon Gentile Times, 
and bring in "The Times of the Jew." 

"Behold the day of the Lord cometh for I 

will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle 

then shall the Lord go forth, and fight against those 

nations and His feet shall stand in that day upon 

the Mount of Olives And the Lord shall be King 

over all the earth Jerusalem shall be safely inhab- 
ited In those days it shall come to pass, that ten 

men shall take hold, out of all languages of the nations 
(the ten nations of Antichrist, of the Roman. Earth) 
even shall take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew, say- 
ing, We will go with you ; for we have heard that god is 
with you." Zechariah xiv : 1-11, Zechariah viii : 23. 

This is the time of the Jew, he is the head and no 
longer the Tail of the nations. "And the Lord shall 
make thee the head, and not the tail." Deuteronomy 
xxviii; 13, 



30 HOW TO STUDY THE BIBLE. 

The Times of the Gentiles historically then is the 
whole period from the reign of Nebuchadnezzar till the 
Lord shall come again in the clouds of Heaven and set up 
the Jewish State. 

The "Fulness of the Gentile signifies the fulness or 
filling up of God's purposes in this age to take out from 
among the Gentiles a people for His name, as it is 
written: "God at the first did visit the Gentiles, to take 
out of them a people for His name." 

And to this agree the words of the prophet; as it is 
written: "After this (after the people from among the 
Gentiles are taken out), I will return, and build again the 
tabernacle (the house, the throne, and kingdom), of 
David." Acts xv: 14-16. 

Our Lord's name is the Christ, those who are taken 
out now from among the Gentiles unto His name are 
Christ-ians : this taking out from among the Gentiles 
began the day Peter preached at the house of Cornelius 
and the Holy Ghost fell on all those who heard the Word ; 
that taking out is being accomplished by the Holy Spirit 
and the Gospel as it is preached on the lips of men, and 
it will go on till the last one who shall constitute the 
"taking out" is called, then that body of called-out per- 
sons will be full, filled to its requisite number; for it 
must be self-evident that "a taking out from among the 
Gentiles" is not a taking of all the Gentiles, it is a taking 
of some Gentiles from among others, and this is election : 
necessarily in an election there is a definiteness both as 
to number and time limit ; this time limit must be marked 
by some well-defined point : it is so marked by the Trans- 
lation of the church, by the resurrection of the dead and 
the transfiguration of the living into the Lord's presence 
in the air ; an event which will precede the Appearing of 



HOW TO STUDY THE BIBLE. 31 

Christ and His church to the Mount of Olives, at least, 
seven years. 

Thus the Times of the Gentiles begin centuries before 
the birth of Christ and will end only at His Appearing 
to set up the kingdom of Israel; while the Fulness of 
the Gentiles begins only after the resurrection of the 
Lord and may end any moment by the sudden secret 
translation or rapture of the church into the air to meet 
Him, when like "the thief in the night" unknown to the 
world He shall come quietly to snatch away the church 
as His jewel, His "Pearl of great price." Matthew xiii : 

45. 46. 

Thus the one truth involves the secret Coming of 
Christ and the Rapture of the church, the other the pub- 
lic Appearing of Christ and the beginning of that era 
when the nation of Israel shall be saved unto the glory 
of coming and millennial days. 

The word Gospel is so familiar, its general definition 
as "good news" so well understood, that its application 
is supposed to be uniform. When therefore we read of 
the Gospel of the Kingdom, the Gospel of God, the Gos- 
pel of Grace, the Glorious Gospel, and the Everlasting 
Gospel, it is taken for granted that they all refer to one 
and the same thing. The similarity is impressed upon 
the average mind by the word Gospel. But however 
the word Gospel may make for similarity it is a mistake 
to imagine that the word covers one subject. On the 
contrary the several designations of the Gospel are of 
themselves the indications of marked, distinctions which 
the Spirit impresses on us to observe. 

The Gospel of the Kingdom is the good news of the 
Kingdom to be set up in Israel with Jerusalem as the 
Capital, when, the Lord Jesus shall come the second time 



32 HOW TO STUDY THE BIBLE. 

as Messiah, as Son of David. It is therefore in the 
nature of the case a Gospel that cannot be preached until 
after this particular age or dispensation is passed, not 
till after the Rapture or Translation of the Church. 

The Gospel of God is the good news that God is a 
Father loving men in spite of their sins and seeking sons 
who shall worship Him in Spirit and in Truth. 

The Gospel of Grace is the good news that Christ died 
for our sins, and rose again for our justification; this is 
peculiarly the Gospel that is to be preached in this age. 

The Glorious Gospel would be better translated, "The 
Gospel of the Glory of the blessed (happy) God." Read 
I Timothy i : n, II Corinthians iv : 4. 

It is the good news that Jesus Christ the crucified and 
risen man is now exalted to be the happy God. It is the 
good news of a God-man exalted to Heaven for believing 
men and their salvation. 

The Everlasting Gospel is the good news of that era of 
time which is called' the Age of Ages, the Millennial era ; 
the good news that the King of Righteousness has come 
and is seated in Jerusalem as the King of nations, as the 
Prince of the Kings of the earth. 

In recognizing these varied Gospels we get vistas of 
truth heretofore unopened and behold the keys with 
which many statements of Scripture otherwise dark are 
unlocked to our comprehension. 

As a simple but striking example of things which 
seem similar but are absolutely distinct, take Matthew 
xxv : 34, Ephesians i: 4. The former reads, "The 
kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the 
world." The latter reads, "hath chosen us in Him before 
the foundation of the world." 

The subject is election in both cases. In Matthew you 



HOW TO STUDY THE BIBLE. 33 

have from the foundation of the world, in Ephesians you 
have before the foundation of the world. The difference 
is in the prepositions before and from: this distinction is 
rarely if ever seen ; and yet the value of the distinction 
is immense. 

From the foundation of the world is a term character- 
izing the kingdom as relating to earth and time, while 
before the foundation of the world takes us wholly above 
the earth and time and projects us into heaven and eter- 
nity, both past and future. 

A striking illustration of the necessity of maintaining 
the distinction between things apparently similar may be 
found in a single passage. In Ephesians iii: 15, it is 
written : "Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth 
is named." 

Ordinarily this is applied to the same subject, the sub- 
ject in both members of the verse supposed to be the 
Church of Christ as the Family of Faith. 

The family on earth is taken to be all those who of the 
church of Christ have died on through the ages, all who 
die now and depart to be with. Christ in Heaven; the 
family on earth are supposed, correspondingly, to be 
those who live in the church on earth to-day; the one is 
thus the church, in heaven, the other the church on earth. 

However true it is that those who are in heaven form 
with those who are really saved on earth the one great 
spiritual family, it is not true that they are ever known 
as the family in heaven and the family in earth. The key 
to the first half of the verse is found in the literal read- 
ing, "in the heavens." Now this epistle is the epistle 
peculiarly of the heavens or the heavenlies. If you take 
your pencil and mark the word you will find that it is 
indeed the characteristic of the book, and is intended to 



34 HOW TO STUDY THB BIBLE. 

set forth the fact that in God's mind the church has al- 
ready gone home with the ascended Christ, and is seen of 
God as seated with Him, and in Him, in Heavenly Places, 
as it is written, "Hath raised us up together, and made 
us sit together m heavenly places in Christ Jesus." 
Ephesians ii: 6. 

The family in heaven then means the church, the whole 
church, living or dead, in heaven or on earth. In other 
words, the church is the Heavenly Family. 

There is another family, a family that is as much a 
family of God as the church of Christ, but a family that 
has to do wholly with the earth. While all the promises 
to the church are made concerning heavenly things, all 
the promises made to the other family have to do with 
the earth, and the earth alone. That family is the nation 
of Israel, and this is the family of whom we speak as 
"The Family in Earth." In God's final purpose Israel 
is to reign on the earth, but the church seated in the 
HeavenHes with Christ above all principalities and 
powers is to rule even over all Israel. The object of the 
Apostle's statement then is to set Jesus Christ as the 
centre of things in heaven and in earth, both to the 
church, and also to the Jew. 

Fail to recognize the distinction between these two 
families, allow yourself to be deceived with the idea that 
both families refer to the same thing and you will miss 
some of the most wonderful and comforting truths of the 
Word of God. 

Admit the distinction and there will be opened to you 
whole sweeps of distinct truths which at the last from 
heaven and from earth gather at His feet to own Him as 
their objective and glory. 



HOW TO STUDY THE BIBLE. 35 

In Ephesians i : 6, it is written : "He hath made us ac- 
cepted in the Beloved." 

In II Corinthians v: 9, you read: "We labor 

that we may be accepted of Him." 

In the one case it is stated that we have been accepted, 
and in the other we are shown as under obligation to 
labor and toil in order to be accepted. Is there a con- 
tradiction here? 

If the things have reference to the same truth there is 
a contradiction. But do they in spite of their similarity 
in form apply to distinct things? I answer they do. In 
Ephesians we are seen as to our standing before God in 
Christ, and as the rendering might be, "graced in Him." 

In Corinthians we are seen as to our state, our daily 
walk. 

Our standing is invariable. It is in Christ and God 
sees us as perfect as He is. Our state is variable. We 
do not always live as those who have been accepted as 
sons of God in the Risen Christ. Because this is so we 
are exhorted to bring our state up to our standing and 
seek to live in accord with it, not that we may be accepted 
as sons of God but that we may live acceptably before 
Him. A proper rendering of the passage in Corinthians 
will substantiate this interpretation and will at the same 
time remove the appearance of similarity. 

Instead of accepted read "acceptable." We are to labor 
then not in order to be accepted as sons of God but to 
be acceptable sons of God. In other words because we 
are the sons of God accepted in the Beloved, we are to live 
acceptably, pleasingly before Him. 

In the nature of the case, the knowledge of dispensa- 
tional truth and the principles of strict classification will 
enable us more and more to distinguish between things 
which differ. 



$6 HOW TO STUDY THE BIBLE. 

THE MEANING AND PURPORT OF THE DIF- 
FERENT BOOKS OF THE BIBLE. 

We mast know the meaning and purport of each book 
of the Bible. 

The Bible is made up of separate books, sixty-six in 
number. 

These books are divided into two great parts, the Old 
and New Testaments, or more correctly, "The Scriptures 
of Israel," and "The Scriptures of the Church." 

The Old Testament, is divided into three great parts : 

Law, Prophets and Psalms. 

This was the division current among the Jews in our 
Lord's time. He sets His seal to this division : "These 
are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet 
with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were 
written in the Law of Moses, and in the Prophets, and 
in the Psalms, concerning me." Luke xxiv : 44. 

The Law is known as the Pentateuch, the latter word 
signifies the fivefold book, and comes from the Greek, 
pente, five, and teuchos, book. 

The five books are Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Num- 
bers and Deuteronomy. 

The Prophets — Twenty-nine books. 

This division includes the prophetic and historic books, 
from Joshua to Malachi. 

The Psalms — Five books. 

Job, Book of Psalms proper, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes 
and Song of Solomon. 

Thirty-nine books in all in the Scriptures of Israel. 

The New Testament is divided into three great parts. 

Gospels, Acts and Epistles. 

Gospels — Four in number. Matthew, Mark, Luke and 
John. 






HOW TO STUDY THE BIBLE. 37 

Three of these Gospels are called the "Synoptics," 
.namely: Matthew, Mark and Luke. 

These are called Synoptic from the Greek sun, to- 
gether, and opsis, view, things viewed together or a 
general and uniform view. That is to say, these Gos- 
pels seem at first glance to give the same general and 
sequential view of the history of our Lord, while the Gos- 
pel according to John stands out in many and marked 
contrasts. 

The Synoptics may be called the Earthly Gospels. The 
Fourth, or John's Gospel, the Heavenly Gospel. 

The Book of Acts consists of two parts. 

In the first part we have the Apostolate of Peter. In 
the second, that of Paul. 

In the first we have the Kingdom presented again to 
the Jews ; and in the second the Gospel given to the Jew 
first, and then the Gentile, with the gradual unfolding 
of God's purpose to call out the church from among the 
Gentiles. 

Epistles to the churches — Sixteen in number. 

Romans, First and Second Corinthians, Galatians, 
Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, First and Second 
Thessalonians. 

These nine epistles are written by Saint Paul. 

Seven epistles are written by John : Ephesus, Smyrna, 
Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, Laodicea. 

Paul writes four individual, or personal, epistles: 

First and Second Timothy, Titus and Philemon. 

He writes one epistle to his nation : The Epi^ie to the 
Hebrews ; he writes fourteen in all. 

John writes two personal epistles : To the Elect Lady 
and her children, to the well-beloved Gaius. 

There are four epistles to the Hebrews : 



& HOW TO STUDY THE BIBLB. 

The Apostle Peter writes two : First and Second Peter. 
James writes one: The Epistle of James. Paul writes 
one : The Epistle to the Hebrews, so distinctively called. 

There are two general Epistles : 

John writes one : The First Epistle of John. Jude 
writes the other : The Epistle of Jude. 

The Epistles of John form the Family Epistles. They 
consist of letters to little children, fathers, young men, 
a mother and her children, a beloved brother in the Lord. 

The New Testament is composed of twenty-seven, 
books. 

In both these testaments we have a marvellous library, 
a library whose topics range from the creation of the 
world to the re-creation of a human soul. 

The manner in which these books have been written 
and this library produced is declared by the Apostles 
Peter and Paul : 

"God spake by the prophets." Hebrews i: i. 

"Holy men of God spake as they were moved (carried 
along) by the Holy Ghost." II Peter i : 21. 

"The Spirit of Christ which was in them (the 
prophets) testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, 
and the glory (glories) that should follow." I Peter i: 
11. 

"All Scripture is given by inspiration of God." II Tim- 
othy iii : 16. 

Note who some of the authors of these books were, 
that is to say, those whom God by His Spirit used as His 
amanuenses : 

Kings, such as David and Solomon; Prime Ministers, 
such as Mordecai and Daniel; Kings' Cup Bearers, such 
as Nehemiah. 

Prophets, scholars, poets, soldiers, physicians, tax- 



HOW TO STUDY THE BIBLE. 39 

gatherers, cattle-drivers, shepherds, tent-makers, and il- 
literate, at least uneducated fishermen. 

These are of all sorts ; but mainly the weak and those 
who were not mighty in the world were chosen of God 
to form His Bible. 

And we are told that God makes such choice in order 
"That no flesh should glory in His presence." I Corin- 
thians i : 29. 

The period of time in writing the book was about six- 
teen hundred years. Think of it ! A book taking sixteen 
centuries to write. What a story its composition would 
tell of the lands in which written, the circumstances under 
which written, and the varied emotions in the hearts of 
those who were privileged to give it forth as the mind 
and will of God to men. 

The Old Testament is written in two languages, the 
Hebrew and Syriac ; the Septuagint, or Greek translation 
by the Seventy of Alexandria is quoted by our Lord and 
His Apostles. 

The New Testament is wholly Greek. 

The supreme object of the Bible from Genesis to Rev- 
elation is to set forth the Son of God in His varied re- 
lations as Creator, Man, Redeemer, Priest, King and 
God-man. 

The Bible is Christo-centric ; without that centre all is 
chaos ; with that the book is order, the expression of in- 
finite intelligence, filled with light, with life and love, 
and intelligible to the quickened minds of the sons of men. 

It is evident that each of these books contributes its 
part towards the general whole ; that each has its special 
lineament to paint in the common portrait of the King; 
that each book stands for some definite form of the 
great revelation, and that necessarily each book has some 



HOW TO STUDY THE BIBLE. 



special characteristic, some particular purport. This 
meaning and purport may sometimes be told in a word or 
a phrase. The knowledge of the meaning, the compre- 
hension of the purport will flash light into the mind con- 
cerning the truths each book seeks to present. 

Let us consider then more particularly the characteris- 
tic meaning and purport of the books of the Bible : 

Genesis. Book of beginnings. Seed-plot of the Bible. 
The germs, the roots of every doctrine afterwards un- 
folded in the Bible. 

The whole doctrine of man, his creation, fall, ruin, 
re-creation and glory, may be found in the first chapter. 

Exodus. Going out, or book of Redemption. 

Redemption by blood and Redemption by pozver. 

Leviticus. Sacrifice, Priesthood and Worship. 

This has been called the Priest's Guide Book. 

Numbers. Wilderness Experience. 

You have here the suggestions, typically, of the church 
in the world, and Christian experience. . 

Like Israel the church is passing on from the sands 
of time to the Promised Land and to the golden floors 
of the Temple of God. On the way there are foes to 
fight, lessons to learn, and experiences to enjoy in the 
manifested grace and forbearance of God. 

Deuteronomy. Preparation for the land. 

To be read in connection with the Epistle to the 
Colossians. 

Joshua. Conflict with the enemy in the land. 

To be read with Ephesians, the book of the "Heav- 
enlies." 

The key, Ephesians vi : 10-17. 

Judges. Eye-sight instead of faith-sight. 

Key, Judges xxi : 25. 



HOW TO STUDY THE BIBLE. 41 

Ruth. Gentile bride for Jewish Lord. 

Boaz. Kinsman, Redeemer, Advocate. 

Samuel, Kings and Chronicles, six books. They set 
before us the Story of the Kingdom. 

/ Samuel. King after man's choice, and the King after 
God's choice. 

The king after man's choice, splendid in stature, glori- 
ous in beauty, wilful in way. 

The King after God's choice, a man of sorrows and 
acquainted with grief, despised and rejected of men. 

77 Samuel. The man of sorrows and acquainted with 
grief exalted to be king over all Israel. 

/ Kings. The King of Glory. 

II Kings. The Great Apostasy. 

/ Chronicles. God dealing in Grace with the Ark as 
the centre. 

77 Chronicles. God manifesting Glory with the Tem- 
ple as the centre. 

Ezra. Building the Temple. 

Nehemiah. Building the City. 

Esther. Secret Providence to a Godless people. 

Job. Self-righteousness. 

Psalms. Christ's Sufferings and Glories. 

Proverbs. Rules of Heaven, for men on earth. 

Ecclesiastes. "Under the sun." 

Song of Solomon. The marriage joy of Bride and 
Bridegroom: 

The joy of Christ and the Church in the marriage hour 
of glory when at last she shall come up out of the 
wilderness leaning on His arm to enter into the place 
prepared, where His banner over her shall be love. 

Isaiah. The anticipated Gospel, and Israel in "The 
latter days." 



42 HOW TO STUDY THE BIBLE. 

Key chapter, Fifty-third. 

Jeremiah. "The day of Jacob's Trouble." 

Lamentations. Jerusalem under foot of the Gentiles. 

Ezekiel. Visions of God and Latter Day Glory. 

Daniel. Hand book of Gentile politics. 

Hose a. The wandering nation. 

Joel. Day of the Lord. 

Amos. Desolation and Restoration. 

Obadiah. Judgment on Gentiles. 

Jonah. Substitution and Resurrection. 

Micah. Bethlehem and the Babe. 

Nahum. Gentile Confederacy. 

Habakkuk. Messianic Glory. 

Zephaniah. Israel the Head, and no longer the Tail. 

Zechariah. The Appearing in Glory on the Mount of 
Olives. 

Malachi. The Sun of Righteousness, and the smiting 
of the earth. 



Matthew. The King of the Jews. 

Mark. The Servant. 

No Genealogy, no record of birth- 
Key words of the book, "Immediately," "Straight- 
way." 

These words express the servant character of our Lord, 
as set before us by Mark. 

Luke. The Man among men. 

John. God the Word who became man and dwelt 
among us that we might behold the glory of the Divine 
Fatherhood in the Divine Sonship. 

Acts. History of the Holy Spirit acting in the church. 

Romans. Justification by Faith. 

/ Corinthians. Gospel Order. 



& 



HOW TO STUDY THE BIBLE. 43 

II Corinthians. Discipline and Benevolence. 
Ephesians.- The Heavenlies. 
Philippians. The mind of Christ. 
Colossians. The Deity of Christ. 

I Thessalonians. Waiting for the Son of God from 
Heaven. (Secret.) 

II Thessalonians. Appearing of the Son of God from 
Heaven. (Public.) 

Titus. "The Blessed Hope." 
Philemon. 'Tut that on my account." 
Hebrews. Shadows and Substance. The Book of 
Contrasts. 

James. Justification by works. 

In Romans man is justified by faith in "God's sight." 

In James man is justified by works in "Man's sight." 

I Peter. Pilgrims and Strangers. 

II Peter. The Great Fire, and the Wonderful Recon- 
struction. 

I John. Reading the Title clear, or Written Assur- 
ance. 

Key text. I John v : 13. 

77 John. Abiding in the Doctrine, or Christ coming 
again in the Flesh. 

III John. Walking in the Truth. 

Jude. The Great Apostasy, and Vengeance Coming. 

Revelation. Consummation or the New Genesis tak- 
ing the place of the Old. 

The purport of the book, the purpose for which it was 
written, forms the point of view from which we must 
interpret its contents, get the grasp of its intents. 

For example, in the Gospel according to Matthew we 
have no record of the ascension of Christ. Recognize 
that this book is written to set forth the Lord Jesus 



44 HOW TO STUDY THE BIBLE. 

Christ as the Messiah, the King of Israel, and you have 
the explanation of the omission : as king of Israel His 
place is not in Heaven but on earth, at Jerusalem the 
city of "The Great King." 

There is no account of the Ascension in the Gospel of 
John. 

Recognize the Lord's own utterance in John iii : 13, 
that "No man hath ascended up to Heaven, but he that 
came down from Heaven, even the Son of Man which 
is in Heaven," and the omission becomes characteristic. 

It is just as characteristic that the record of the Ascen- 
sion should be given in Mark and Luke. 

In Mark He is seen ascending as that servant who did 
the Father's will, and whom the Father would exalt as 
the witness that "the way to exaltation is in the dust." 

He is seen ascending in Luke because as risen from the 
dead He must take a new, immortal Humanity to heaven, 
and sit there as "The Man in the Glory," the witness 
that as man He has met for men in His death perfectly 
all the demands of God's righteousness against the chief 
of sinners ; He must sit there as the Second Man, the 
Last Adam, the Head of a new race, the prophecy of 
what all shall be whc believe in Him ; the shining glorious 
proclamation of that hour when the world shall be put 
not under angels, but redeemed, regenerated, and death- 
less man. 

In Matthew the genealogy of Christ is connected with 
Abraham and David because as the King of Jews it is 
necessary that He shall get the Land through Abraham, 
and the Throne through David. 

In Mark there is no genealogy because He is there 
represented as the Servant, and the servant has no need 
of ancestry. 



HOW TO STUDY THE BIBLE. 45 

In Luke His genealogy is carried back to Adam that 
He may be presented as the Son of Man and the seed of 
the woman. 

In John we have no genealogy because the purport cf 
that book is to set the Christ before us as the unbegun, 
eternally begotten Son of God, He who is from everlast- 
ing to everlasting. 

For a right understanding of the book we read we are 
under obligation to put ourselves at its point of view 
and see the truth it presents in the light which that atti- 
tude and angle of vision may give. 



DIVIDING THE BOOKS INTO THEIR COMPO- 
NENT PARTS. 

We must know how to divide a Book into its com- 
ponent parts. 

A book may be divided into characteristic and constitu- 
ent parts : for example the Book of Job : 

Characteristically, the Book of Job may be divided 
into five parts : 

1. The abode and power of Satan. 

2. The manifested folly of human wisdom in its en- 
deavor to explain the providence of God. 

3. Thirty chapters of self-righteousness. 

4. The need of a Days-man. 

5. The vileness of human perfection. 
Constituently, the book may also be divided into five 

parts : 

1. God's permitted trial of Job by Satan. 

2. The efforts of Job's friends to account for his trial. 

3. The address of Elihu. 

4. The Lord Himself answering Job. 



46 HOW TO STUDY THE BIBLE. 

5. Job coming to a knowledge of his own vileness in 
the presence of God's Holiness. 

On the same principle it is possible to analyze chapters 
as well as sections. 

Take as an illustration the Gospel according to Mat- 
thew. 

This is the Gospel of the King of the Jews : each chap- 
ter sets forth some special action of the King : 

1. Generation of the King. 

2. Birth of the King. 

3. Baptism of the King. 

4. Temptation of the King. 

5 — 7. Legislation of the King. 

8 — 9. Manifested power of the King. 

10. The King sending out ambassadors. 

11. The King reporting Himself through His works 
to John. 

12. The King giving His credentials to His enemies. 

13. The King unveiling the mysteries of the King- 
dom : or, presenting the Kingdom in a mystery. 

14. The King acting in compassion. 

15. The King acting in grace to Gentiles. 

16. The King painting the portrait of His Bride. 

17. The King giving a vision of His second Advent. 

18. The King pointing out Regeneration as the door 
into the Kingdom. 

19. The King and the Millenium, or the age of the 
Regeneration. 

20. The King seeking laborers. 

21. The King presenting Himself to His brethren 
in the flesh. 

22. The King foretelling the destruction of Jerusa- 
lem. 



HOW TO STUDY THE BIBLE. 47 

23. The King setting aside the Jew as a nation till He 
comes again. 

24. The Great Tribulation, "The day of Jacob's 
Trouble," before The King comes again. 

25. The King coming first as a Bridegroom, and then 
as a Judge. 

26. The King betrayed. 

27. The King crucified. 

28. The King raised from the dead and made not only 
the king over all Israel, but the authority over all things 
in Heaven. 

Not only is it possible to take each chapter in some 
characteristic way, but to take the chapter and find in it 
an analysis of contents suggestive. Take as an example 
the Fifth chapter of the Second Epistle to the Corin- 
thians : 

1. The location of the Christian between death and 
resurrection, v, I. 

2. The Christian's perfect body, v, 2. 

3. The objective purpose of salvation, v, 4, 5. 

4. The Judgment Seat of Christ, v, 10. 

5. The true inspiration to service, v, 14. 

6. The New Creation, v, 17. 

7. The message to the world, v, 20. 

8. The supreme argument, v, 21. 

In turning a book into its component parts we may in- 
quire zvhen it was written, by whom it was written, to 
zvhom it was written, the circumstances under which it 
was written, why it was written ; these questions will 
bring the book into its several parts before the student 
and set its sections, whether of chapter or verse, into 
clear vision. 



48 HOW TO STUDY THE BIBLE. 

EACH BOOK IN ITS ORDAINED PLACE. 

There has been as much the manifestation of God ? s 
hand in the sequences of the books as in any other part 
of its creation ; necessarily therefore each book is in, its 
ordained place and cannot be taken out of it without the 
dislocation of the organism. 

To illustrate, the Book of Ruth comes in between the 
Book of Judges on the one side, and the Book of Samuel 
on the other. 

Ruth gives us the Gentile bride of the Jewish Lord and 
is therefore the type of the Church of Christ. Now the 
Church of Christ can only come into view after the fail- 
ure in Israel ; only when the marriage in Heaven takes 
place, or to be precise, when the church is called out, 
completed, and translated to meet the Lord at His Second 
Coming can the kingdom of Israel be set up. This is 
just what the position of the Book of Ruth shows con- 
clusively. Judges gives us failure in Israel, "every man 
doing that which was right in his own eyes." Samuel 
gives us the setting-up of the kingdom. 

Here then you have the Gentile bride placed in the 
canon of scripture between the failure of Israel and 
the coming of the kingdom. 

In the Book of Ezra you have the building of the Tem- 
ple, and in Nehemiah the restoration of the city; it is of 
little matter what the chronology may be, the moral se- 
quence demands that the dwelling place of God shall be 
looked at before the dwelling place of man ; and examina- 
tion will show that this sequence is independent of man's 
ordering. 

To see how necessary the Book of Acts is to the place 
accorded it, it is only required in reading to close the 



HOW TO STUDY THE BIBLE. 49 

book at the Gospel of John and open it again at the 
Epistle to the Romans. In John you close with Jesus 
on the shores of Galilee, but in Romans you find Him 
gone from the earth and the Church in His place, but 
no account of the origin or constitution of that church. 
Without the Book of Acts you cannot assist at the birth 
of the Church and the inauguration of the dispensation 
of the Holy Ghost. 

The Book of the Revelation finds it place by inherent 
law. 

It is a matter of little import when it was written, there 
is but one place which it can logically occupy, that is at 
the consummation of the Bible. I recall seeing some 
years ago a house in process of building; before the walls 
were half way up the carpenters began constructing the 
roof, and at a certain stage when the walls were com- 
plete, caused that roof to be swung up into its place. No 
matter when the roof was constructed there was but one 
place for it, and that on top, as the consummation of the 
building. No matter at what hour the Revelation was 
inspired of God there is but one place it can occupy, and 
that is at the close of the canon, resting in its place as the 
roof in the palace of Truth. 



EACH BOOK IN PLACE BY LAW OF GROWTH. 

Each book finds its place therefore by the law of or- 
ganic growth, each book is a necessity to, and produces 
the other, just as each preceding part of a tree is a ne- 
cessity and inspiration to that which follows. 

If Genesis is necessary to bring Israel into Egypt, Ex- 
odus is necessary to take them out. If the order of the 



50 HOW TO STUDY THE BIBLE. 

New Testament is Gospels, Acts, and Epistles, it is be- 
cause in the Gospels we get Christ in the flesh, in Acts 
Christ in the Spirit, and in the Epistles Christ in doc- 
trine; and these are necessary the one to the other as 
parts of an organic whole. 

If each book is thus related to the other it is evident 
that we may find books acting as divine commentaries, 
the one upon the other. 

Colossians throws light spiritually on Deuteronomy, 
in that both books are the preparation for the inheritance. 
Ephesians is a commentary on Joshua, in that both books 
show conflict in the endeavor to enter into the purchased 
possession. 

Corinthians is a flash light on Judges, the Christians 
at Corinth being largely in the same attitude as that 
which characterized Israel in the former book, "every 
one doing that which seemed right in his own eyes. 1 ' 
Hebrews is a key to Leviticus, and the Book of Revela- 
tion to the prophecy of Daniel. 

From all this it follows that each book being char- 
acteristic in itself, each book must hang the key up beside 
its own door. 

The key of the Revelation may be found in the nine- 
teenth verse of the first chapter. "The things which 
thou hast seen, the things which are, and the things 
which shall be hereafter" (meta tauta, after these things) 
Past, Present, and Future, this is the inspired division 
of the book. The past things are in the first chapter, 
the now things are in the second and third chapters, the 
future things, or things which are after the now things, 
are from the fourth chapter on. 

The key of the Book of Ecclesiastes is in the phrase 
"under the sun." It is the book that looks at the world 



HOW TO STUDY THE BIBLB. 51 

from that standpoint and sees only vanity and vexation 
of spirit in the best that can be done there; it stands in 
contrast to the book of Ephesians where the believer 
exalted with Christ to the throne of God above the sun 
sees things from God's point of view, and rejoices in 
Him as the Author and End of his salvation. 

In one of the Cantons of Switzerland whenever the 
inmates are away the key is placed under the cross at 
the door. Those who wish to enter the house know 
where the key is, and always look for it under the figure 
of the outstretched Christ. The final key that fits every 
book of the Bible is to be found under the Cross, under 
the figure of the outstretched Christ. 

Take this key which comes from the cross, apply it 
to any book, open the door and enter in; stand for 
awhile in listening attitude, and the symphonies of eter- 
nal truth shall be heard sounding in Heavenly measures 
to your soul; stand patiently, and your eyes shall be 
anointed with eye-salve to behold the face of Him who 
is Himself, the Face and Likeness of God. 



WHAT TO STUDY. 

Many persons lose time and wander aimlessly through 
the Bible because they do not know just what to study. 

A few suggestions in this respect may be helpful. 

i.v We ought to study Topics. Such topics as Grace, 
Law, Faith, Hope, Kingdom, Covenants, Sabbath, Sec- 
ond Coming, Inspiration, Angels, Spirits, First and Sec- 
ond Resurrections. 

2. We ought to study the Types. Types of Persons, 
Places, Events. 

3. Great Characters. Such as Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, 



52 HOW TO STUDY THE BIBLE. 

Joseph, Moses, David, Saul, Elijah and Elisha of the 
Old Testament. Paul, Peter, James, John, and scores 
of others in the New Testament. 

4* Great Chapters. Genesis xxii, Leviticus xvi, Num- 
bers xxi, Deuteronomy viii, Isaiah liii, Matthew xiii, 
Luke xv, John iii, Revelation ii and iii. 

5. We ought to study Key Words. Words and 
phrases, like Heavenlies, Much-more, Better, Straight- 
way, Overcomes, the Eight Togethers of the New Testa- 
ment, and the Seven Rests. 

6. The Names of. God. God, Creator absolute ; Lord- 
God, Creator in Covenant relation; Jehovah (Yahveh), 
He who will be, the Coming One; Almighty God, the 
God of Providence; the Most-High God, the God of 
Nations. 

7. The Names of Persons. Jacob, the Supplanter; 
Israel, Prince with God; Saul, Destroyer; Paul, the 
Worker; Simon, man in the flesh; Simon Peter, man 
in the flesh called by the grace of God into relation with 
the Son, made a part of the living Rock, and himself a 
living stone. 

8. Developments of Doctrine. For example : The In- 
carnation, seen in Eve's thought about Cain, typified in 
the supernatural causation of Isaac's birth, fulfilled in 
Christ, and now expanded in Christians. 

In this way we may study, Sacrifice, Atonement, Re- 
pentance, Conversion, Regeneration, Justification, Sancti- 
fication. 

9. Allusive Utterances. A striking example of this 
is to be found in Philippians ii: 6. "Who, being in the 
form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with 
God." That is to say, thought not to snatch at equality 
with God.) 






HOW TO STUDY THE BIBLE. 53 

The allusion is evidently to some one who did ; one 
who had the hardihood to think about robbing God of 
the glory of His supremacy. The very statement of 
the passage leads to such an inferential conclusion. 

It leads to the inquiry as to what Scripture may say 
about the matter ; and Scripture answers that there was 
such a person. 

That being was Satan. Isaiah xiv: 12-14, Ezekiel 
xxviii. 

Another example : II Peter iii : 3, 4. In this passage 
the Apostle warns against a class of scoffers who should 
arise in the church in the last days, and in the endeavor 
to justify their worldly lusts would mock and scoff at the 
thought of the Second Coming. The principle of al- 
lusive utterance thus indicates that, in the last days, there 
will be a special testimony in the church to the imminency 
of the Lord's Coming. 

Under this head of what to study may be included, 
also, the Plan of Study. 



PLAN OF STUDY. 

It is necessary to have some definite plan or method to 
accomplish any real results. 
r i7 Compare Scripture with Scripture. 

It is written, that in His light we shall see light. 

Illustration (Revelation xix: 15, Ephesians vi: 17). 
The sword out of His mouth in Revelation is explained 
by the Ephesians to be the sword of the Spirit, which 
is the Word of God, and thus the sword out of the 
mouth is simply the declaration that by the word of His 
mouth the Lord will arraign the nations at His Coming, 
and hale them to judgment. 



54 HOW TO STUDY THE BIBLE. 

Matthew xxv: i, is explained by II Corinthians xi: 2, 
.The virgins of Matthew equalling the assembly of Christ, 
presented as a virgin in Corinthians. 

2. Study slozvly. 

You cannot "cram" the Bible. You must eat what 
you get. Jeremiah xv : 16. 

3. Read carefully. 

Get all the light, examine every word) subject every 
part to microscopic investigation ; a preposition or an 
article makes a difference. Dig into the original if you 
can ; get helps if you cannot. 

4. Patiently. 

If you do not understand to-day, you may to-morrow. 
The advance in truth is in exact proportion to the use of 
truth. 

5. Reverently. 

You are reading God's Word. His breath and pres- 
ence are in it. 

6. Prayerfully. 

Pray for illumination, for opening "the heart to at- 
tend unto the things spoken." (Acts xvi : 14.) 

Only when a Risen Saviour opened the understanding 
of the Disciples could they understand the Scriptures. 
"Then opened He their understanding, that they might 
understand the Scriptures." Luke xxiv: 45. How sig- 
nificant that the last act of the Son of God before He 
ascended was to open the understanding of His disciples 
in relation to the Scriptures ; and hoiv intensely signifi- 
cant that these Scriptures should be none other than the 
Scriptures of Israel, as it is written : "And beginning at 
MoSES and all the prophets, He expounded unto them in 
all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself." Luke 
xxiv : 2J. And these Scriptures according to verse 44, 



HOW TO STUDY THE BIBLE. 55 

are Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms, or, the Old 
Testament from Genesis to Malachi. 
";K Read, and study constantly. 

Make it a daily practice to read and always to study 
something, no matter how little. 



IMPLEMENTS OF STUDY. 

1. The Bagster Bible. 

Always with a broad margin for marking. When you 
mark be as systematic as you can. For example : Black 
lines for Gospel, Historic, or Spiritual, statement. Blue 
lines for Second Coming, and kindred truths, such as 
the Kingdom, etc. Red lines for Blood, Sacrifice, the 
Cross, and Atonement. Green, or violet ink for Holy 
Spirit. 

If you would make a distinction between the Coming 
of Christ for His Church, and the Appearing of Christ 
with His Church, use a star for the former, and a circle 
with rays like a sun for the latter; for in the former He 
comes as "The Morning Star" (Revelation xxii: 16), 
and in the latter as the Sun of Righteousness. "Unto 
you that fear my name shall the Sun of Righteousness 
arise with healing in His wings." Malachi iv : 2. 

The Bible intelligently marked is a splendid instrument 
in the hands of a devoted student. 

2. A Cruden's Concordance. 

3. A Topical Text Book. 

4. A copy of the Revised Version for examining read- 
ings and phrase constructions. 

Making use of these implements, following these 
methods, and applying these principles, you will find : 



56 HOW TO STUDY THE BIB LB. 

i, A splendid style. 

At one moment fresh with Eden blooms, anon hot with 
Sinai's flames: heaving with prophetic warnings, or jubi- 
lant with Messiah's strains : rapt in the glory of Isaiah's 
vision, or silvery with Bethlehem's natal song: sobbing 
with Gethsemane's woes, or triumphant with the Resur- 
rection theme: tender with the Gospel call, and pitiful 
above the contrite heart; sulphurous with curses at the 
sight of sin, or melting into universal song as the door 
in Heaven' opens, and He is seen, the Living Lord, the 
Coming King. 

Apart from this, the literary value of the English 
translation is above price; great orators, some of them 
foreigners, have found in it a classic. Kossuth, the 
great Hungarian, declared that his pure English came 
from reading the English Bible. 

2. Supernatural zvisdom. 

It tells the story of Light, Sun, Moon, and Stars, 
of deep Sea, and melted Rock, before Astronomy, or Ge- 
ology had come to the birth ; and waits patiently till 
Science shall stop its hypotheses, revealing even now to 
him who loyally reads it that the only opposition ever 
made from Science was not from Science itself, but from 
"Science falsely so called." I Timothy vi : 20. 

3. A Royal Dignity. 

Not a silly line in it: filled with the genius of reserve. 

4. Denunciation of Sin. 

5. The continual cry of "Holy, Holy." 

6. Unity of Design. 

The first Genesis unfolds in the new, the new Heavens 
and the new earth answer the old Heavens and the old 
earth, whilst Christ and His Church point back to the 
First Man and his bride, and the river under the throne 
becomes the realitv of the river of Eden. 



HOW TO STUDY THE BIBLE. 57 

7. Christ in every line. 

Here is the key that unlocks every mystery. 

8. Your character. 

By transgression and nature, a sinner under the judg- 
ment of God ; by grace a sinner forgiven, justified, ac- 
cepted as righteous before God and through regenera- 
tion, His deathless child. 

9. Your Future. 

A life of peace and power in the Paradise of God. 



BENEFITS OF STUDY. 

1. Faith will be strengthened. "So then Faith cometh 
by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God." Romans 
x: 17. 

2. Joy will be increased. "I rejoice at thy Word as 
one that findeth great spoil." Psalm cxix : 162. 

3. Spiritual life nourished. "Desire the sincere Milk 
of the Word that ye may grow thereby." I Peter ii: 2. 

4. The Christian thoroughly furnished unto all good 
zvorks. "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, 
and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, 
for instruction in righteousness ; that the man of God 
may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good 
works." II Timothy iii : 16, 17. 

He who studies the Book as thus indicated will find 
himself able to flash into the darkness and ignorance 
of infidelic minds the light of the prismatic revelation of 
the truth of God, meet the difficulties of earnest seekers 
in the Word, and get for himself an abiding conscious- 
ness of its unity. 

He will see it rooting there in Genesis, and fruiting 
here in Revelation. 



58 HOW TO STUDY THE BIBLE. 

He will see that the Old Creation begins with the 
Heavens, comes down to the earth, goes on with man's 
body and ends with his soul ; and that the New Creation 
begins with man's soul, goes on to a perfect body, a 
perfect earth, and ends with the new heavens, a fourfold 
and complete triumph of Regeneration ; regenerated soul, 
regenerated body, regenerated earth, and regenerated 
Heavens. 

He will see that Christ is the centre of Heaven and 
Earth and Hell; that the whole universe is Christo- 
centric, and that the centre of the Christo-centric rev- 
elation is the immortality of the body as the enthrone- 
ment and manifestation of God ; that from all eternity 
the thought of God has been to set up a deathless in- 
corruptible man as the image and likeness of Himself, 
and through him forever make Himself known govern- 
mentally and morally to the universe. He who thus 
studies will see with ever-increasing awe and adoration 
that God came down to be Man, that man might go up to 
be God forevermore. , 

He will get visions of God as by the banks of the river 
of Chebar ; he will see above all the Glory One like unto 
the Son of Man : and from the throne high and lifted up 
where the Seraphs sing, he will hear the voices saying, 
''Behold your God ;" and other voices saying, "You shall 
be like unto Him, for you shall see Him as He is." 



AN ADDRESS ON THE 
SECOND COMING. 



Jin Address on the Second Coming* 



Unto them that look for Him shall He appear the Second 
time. — Hebrews ix: 28. 



If the value of a doctrine was to be judged by the 
frequency of its mention, then easily the Second Com- 
ing of our Lord would be the most important doctrine 
in the Word of God; it will be admitted that the Atone- 
ment is the core of the Gospel, the crimson reservoir out 
of which flow forth the streams of gladness that fill 
the whole area of the Divine Commission, and yet this 
sublime word occurs but once in the New Testament, 
and there when faithfully translated is not atonement 
at all but reconciliation, something quite different and 
apart from atonement ; on the other hand the doctrine 
of the Second Coming in this same New Testament is 
mentioned on an average, at least, once in thirty verses. 

When you turn to the Old Testament you find that 
the seventh man who ever lived on the earth, the sev- 
enth man from Adam, even Enoch, spoke of the Second 
Coming, saying : "Behold the Lord cometh with ten 
thousands of His saints." 

From Genesis to Malachi the book is filled with the 
doctrine. 

It is set forth in type, figure, symbol, parable, story, 
illustration, and direct statement. The Spirit seems to 
exhaust human vocabulary in the vain endeavor to pro- 
claim it. The noblest prose and the most exalted poetry 
the world ever knew break like waves upon the shore 
and at times seem to turn into mist in utter helplessness 
to express the coming glory. 



6] 



62 THE SECOND COMING. 

The stars of Heaven pale, break loose from their 
orbits and fall, the waves of the sea roar, the floods lift 
up their voices, the mountains bow down at His pres- 
ence, the trees of the wood clap their hands, and every 
voice in Heaven and earth cries out: "Behold He com- 
eth, He cometh, the King;" and by the time you have 
reached Malachi and leaned across four centuries of 
prophetic silence your ears are full of the footsteps of 
the coming king. 

•The moment you enter the New Testament John the 
Baptist is heard speaking not of the First Advent but 
of the Second ; and when the starlight of Bethlehem, 
the mystery of the manger, and the apprenticeship of 
thirty years are passed and the Christ sets forth upon 
His mission His lips are full, not of the First Advent 
but of the Second. Indeed I do not know that He ever 
spoke directly of His First Advent, but His lips were 
continually full of the Second. So filled was He with 
the thought of it that on one occasion He took His 
disciples up into the mountain height, and there on the 
background of the dark and black midnight was trans- 
figured before them till His garments shone whiter 
than any fuller on earth could whiten them, blazing 
forth in the beauty of His essential light till they saw 
Him as their glorious and coming king. And the apostle 
Peter speaking of that supreme event declares in his 
epistle that the Lord manifested Himself not only as 
their king, but set forth in full detail the manner and 
fashion of the coming kingdom. 

When he stood before His judges He was not care- 
ful to speak of that marvellous moment when the angels 
of God saluted Him upon His mother's breast, but lift- 
ing up His voice warned them that the hour was at 



THE SECOND COMING. 63 

hand when they should see Him coming on the bosom 
of the clouds in great power and glory. 

When for the last time He passed through the Temple 
He so spoke of coming days that His disciples sought 
Him out privately and entreated Him that He would 
explain to them the import of His words ; and sitting 
down there upon the Mount of Olives where the whole 
city and the vista of the centuried years lay before Him, 
He unfolded to them event after event with Judea and 
Jerusalem as the arena and centre of their emphasis until 
they beheld the climax of His Second Coming. 

Just before the solemn Tragedy when He would com- 
fort the hearts of His sorrowing followers, sorrowing 
because of the shadowing hour of separation, He takes 
them to the window of the little upper room and bid- 
ding them look out on the illimitable sweep of the nightly 
heavens lifts Himself to the level of Godhead and de- 
clares that He is going into that upper country to pre- 
pare a place for them ; and that when He has completed 
it He will come again and receive them unto Himself. 

After the Tragedy, when He has risen from the dead, 
lined the grave with the light of His own immortality, 
and ascended heavenwards, two angels stand by the up- 
looking disciples and say unto them : "Ye men of Galilee, 
why stand ye gazing up into heaven ? This same Jesus, 
which is taken up from you into heaven,- shall so come 
in like manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven." 

On the day of Pentecost the Apostle Peter preaches 
to the Jews that this man of Nazareth whom they killed, 
and whom God had raised from the dead, was none 
other than their own Messiah ; and that if they would 
repent, confess His death and resurrection in baptism, 
God would give them the times of refreshing promised 



64 THE SECOND COMING. 

ki the prophets, and would send Jesus Christ to them a 
second time. 

Throughout the Acts while the Apostles lift up the 
crucified Lord to the vision of faith they are always 
careful to declare that God raised Him from the dead 
and will send Him back. 

When you pass into the Epistles you are confronted 
on the very threshold with the testimony that the Son 
of God is coming again. The Epistle to the Romans 
is divided into three sections, doctrinal, dispensational, 
and hortatory. Each section ends with the declaration 
that Christ is coming. The eighth chapter is the climax 
of one of the most stupendous and hopeful lines of argu- 
ment ever written ; and the climax of the eighth chapter 
is the Second Coming of Christ. The eleventh chapter 
is the climax of an argument concerning the dispensa- 
tional distinction between Israel and the church ; and the 
climax of that dispensational argument is the Second 
Coming of Christ. The sixteenth chapter is the climax 
of exhortations and regulations concerning the simple 
details of Christian life and obligation ; and the climax 
of this chapter is the Second Coming of Christ. 

The first chapter of the Primary Epistle to the Corin- 
thians tells us that as Christians we come behind in no 
gift, our spiritual equipment is perfect, therefore we 
ought to be in the constant attitude of waiting for our 
Lord as stewards who will not be ashamed to meet Him. 
The climax of the fifteenth chapter is the argument for 
the resurrection of the dead ; and the initial and climax 
of that argument is the Coming of Christ. Taking the 
whole race and sweeping it up into Adam for death, the 
Apostle declares that the race thus dying and dead 
shall come forth again in Christ both to salvation and 



THE SECOND COMING. 65 

damnation, but every man in his own order, and par- 
ticularly, as described, they that are Christ's at His Com- 
ing ; thus declaring that the First Resurrection, the resur- 
rection of the saints of God, will take place at .The Com- 
ing. In the second epistle to the same church Christ is 
seen coming to set up that Judgment Seat at which each 
Christian is to be manifested for reward. 

In the Epistle to the Galatians we get no mention of 
the Second Coming because there the Apostle has us on 
the cross, crucified with Christ. 

We get no mention of this great event in the Epistle 
to the Ephesians because there we are seen as risen and 
seated with Christ in Heavenly Places; we are there as 
those who have already ascended in the anticipation of 
the Spirit, as that church which He has raised, trans- 
lated, and presented to Himself without spot or wrinkle, 
or any such thing. 

In the first epistle written to the Gentiles, the Epistle 
to the Thessalonians, the Apostle Paul testifies that these 
converts had "turned to God from idols, to serve the 
living and true God ; and to wait for His Son from 
Heaven, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath 
to come." It is a notorious fact that each chapter of 
these two epistles to the Thessalonians closes with the 
declaration that Christ is coming. 

In writing to Timothy he laces the two epistles to- 
gether with the Coming of Christ. In Titus he repre- 
sents that Coming as the Blessed Hope. The whole 
aim of the Epistle to the Hebrews is to set up the types, 
figures, and shadows of truth, and let us see how they all 
melt into the white light of fulfillment in Christ, as their 
perfect Antitype, at His Second Coming. 

James, with all the conservatism of Jerusalem and the 



66 THE SECOND COMING. 

bondage of the Law upon him lifts up his voice and de- 
clares that the Lord is coming. 

Peter testifies that the Second Coming of Christ is the 
one thing that appeals to faith and love, and in his Sec- 
ond Epistle warns the believer that the time will come, 
if the Lord should tarry, when scoffers will arise in the 
very midst, and in the name of Christ himself scoff and 
mock at the doctrine of the Second Coming, saying: 
"Where is the promise of His Coming?" 

In his threefold and family epistle the Apostle John 
sounds the chord of "Home, sweet Home," in the exalted 
utterances concerning the Coming of Him whom he 
lovingly describes, as "The Coming One." 

Jude quotes Enoch, and thus binds the New Testa- 
ment back to the Old, making the whole Bible but one 
testimony as to the Coming of the King. 

The Book of the Revelation is written by the Apostle 
John. It is called in our Bibles the Revelation of St. 
John, the Divine. Its proper title is, "The Revelation," 
that is to say, the Revealing, the Manifestation "of 
Christ." It might well be called in English, the Book 
of the Second Advent; its one subject from the first to 
the last of its chapters is the Second Coming of Christ. 
The book is like the roof of some mighty cathedral, each 
of the twenty-two chapters like a panel in the roof, each 
panel filled with a scenic representation of the Coming 
Christ. 

So important is the doctrine to our Lord Himself that 
He practically puts His own signature to this book which 
specially speaks of it, openly and unqualifiedly avouch- 
ing that He is its cause and inspiration, and attaching to 
it what He does not do to any other portion of Scrip- 
ture, namely, a threefold blessing: Blessing to him who 



THE SECOND COMING. 67 

reads it, to those who hear it read, and to those who 
keep its "sayings." 

As the book closes the Spirit and the Bride say come ; 
and he who has heard the Lord's declaration that He is 
coming is commanded to say, "Come;" while the voice 
of Christ as the last utterance out of Heaven earthward, 
is heard saying: "Behold, I am Coming Quickly." 

Thus from Genesis to Revelation this doctrine of 
the Second Coming is inwrought with the warp and 
woof of the inspired Word and lies as thick upon its 
pages as the autumn leaves which at this hour whirl 
about Manhattan ; and he who keeps his ears alert as he 
opens its pages may hear the rustling of the footsetps 
of the Coming King. 

From all this it is evident that the Coming of Christ 
is the predominantly mentioned doctrine in the Word 
of God. 

How is it then that faithful preachers, those who claim 
to love their Lord, neglect it, make it the "Neglected 
Theme," send it into the background, and rarely men- 
tion it except with an apology as to its uselessness ; 
giving the impression indeed that he who does preach it 
is guilty of some offense, if not against decency and 
order, at least, against wisdom and knowledge? 

Not only is this doctrine the predominently mentioned 
one of the Bible, it is, also, the one bound up with every 
other doctrine of the Word of God ; so bound up that it 
cannot be neglected without disaster to the whole body 
of truth. 

It is bound up with every Fundamental doctrine. 

It is bound up with the doctrine of the Resurrection. 

Victory over death, the change from corruption to 
incorruption, from mortality to immortality, the resur- 



68 THE SECOND COMING. 

rection, transfiguration, and translation of the church, are 
wholly and alone at the Coming of Christ. 

It is bound up with the doctrine of Divine Sonship in 
believers, even as it is written: 

"Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not 
yet appear what we shall be : but we know that, when He 
shall appear, we shall be like Him ; for we shall see Him 
as He is." 

It is bound up with the doctrine of the Deliverance oil 
Creation from the Bondage of Corruption. 

If you will put your ear to the breast of old mother 
earth you will hear her travail groans and cries as she 
seeks to bring forth a world into the light of peace, be- 
yond the agony of human suffering and the stain of sin ; 
if you listen, throughout her borders, in all the operation 
of her laws, you will hear the protest against that con- 
dition of existence where birth is followed by death, 
where hope is chased by despair, and where defeat, night, 
and silence, end the scene. The Apostle represents this 
groaning and protesting creation like one on the "tip-toe 
of expectation" craning the neck and looking forward to 
that hour when she shall be delivered from her bondage, 
and be manifested into the "glorious liberty of the sons 
of God" at the Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 

It is bound up with the doctrine of the Deliverance of 
God and Christ over Satan. 

Jesus Christ died that He might destroy "him that 
hath the power of death, that is, the Devil;" but this 
consummation devoutly to be wished for cannot take 
place till the door in Heaven opens, and the Lord Christ 
with His ascended church shall come forth like an army 
with banners to lay hold on that old Serpent, which is 
the Devil, and Satan, and bind him for a thousand years. 



THE SECOND COMING. 69 

It is bound up with the doctrine of the Recognition of 
the dead, as it is written : 

"Then/' in the day of the Lord's coming, "we shall 
know even as we are known." Wherefore the Apostle 
writes to the Thessalonians that they will be his crown 
and rejoicing, whether by resurrection or translation, in 
the Presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at His Coming. 

It is bound up with every exhortation to Christian 
Living. 

Would the Apostle exhort Christians to attend on the 
service of the Lord's Day and not forsake the assembling 
of themselves together as the manner of some is, he 
does so by an appeal to the imminency of the Lord's 
Coming. 

Would he exhort to faithfulness in the Breaking of 
Bread, he does so by saying unto them : "Ye do show the 
Lord's death till He come." Thus making manifest that 
this ordinance is to be observed in the light of the Lord's 
Coming and that each time we gather at The Table 
whether we know it or not we are proclaiming that the 
Second Coming of Christ is the terminus ad quern of 
Christian pilgrimage. 

Does the Apostle exhort to Christian Liberality, he 
does so, by the Coming of the Lord. 

Would he inspire to Holy Living, he says : "I pray 
God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved 
blameless unto the Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." 

Would he comfort those who mourn above their Chris- 
tian dead, he does so by the fact of the Second Coming, 
telling them that, "the Lord HiMSKLF, shall descend from 
heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and 
with the trump of God ; and the dead in Christ shall rise 
first : Then we which are alive and remain shall be 



70 THE SECOND COMING. 

caught up Together with ThEm in the clouds to meet 
the Lord in the air." And then speaking by inspiration 
he adds : "Wherefore comfort one another with 
THESE words." That is to say, the blessed words that 
the Lord is coming to bring the dead and the living saints 
together in His presence. 

Does the Apostle see that "perilous times" are at hand 
in which there shall be a form of godliness but denying 
the power thereof, an hour coming when the church will 
no longer endure sound doctrine but heaping to them- 
selves teachers who shall tickle their ears be turned 
away from the truth and unto fables ; and does he desire 
to exhort the Christian minister to be faithful among the 
faithless found, he does so, by the Coming of Christ, 
saying : 

"I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord 
Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead, 
and by (such is the true rendering) His appearing and 
His kingdom ; preach the word." 

Does he see the time approaching when there shall be 
a great apostasy, a great falling away, and Antichrist 
seated in the Temple of God showing himself that he is 
God ; and would he comfort the minds of the followers 
of the truth as against The Lie, he does so by declaring 
that the Lord is coming in His might and power to de- 
stroy with the breath of His lips this last masterpiece of 
Satan. 

Does the Apostle James see that in the closing hours 
of this dispensation Capital and Labor shall look at each 
other with scowling faces and clenched hands ; does he 
see that rich men shall heap up treasures for the last 
days, that there will be an immense accumulation of 
wealth in the hands of the few, and that the rust of un- 



THE SECOND COMING. 71 

used money shall eat like a gangrene in the hands of 
those who hold it; does he see that the lawful wage of 
the laborer by unjust combination is kept back from him, 
and does he hear the voice of that injustice crying in 
the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth; does he see that im- 
patience at this injustice is unnerving the hearts of those 
who confess the name of Christ, and that the temptation 
to take justice in their own hands is gaining ground; 
and would he counsel them not to be guilty of such 
treason against the profession they have made as the 
followers of a rejected Christ, he does so by saying unto 
them : "Be patient, therefore, brethren, unto The com- 
ing of the Lord." Again: "The Coming of the Lord 
draweth nigh." And this climax : "Behold the Judge 

STANDETH BEFORE THE DOOR." 

Would the Apostle Peter exhort the Christian Pastors 
to faithfulness in that most solemn and arduous of tasks, 
the shepherding of the flock, he does so by announcing 
to them that when Christ "the Chief Shepherd shall 
appear, they shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not 
away." 

Does the Apostle Jude exhort to stand by the faith 
once delivered to the saints, he does so by quoting the 
testimony of Enoch the seventh from Adam that the Lord 
with ten-thousands of His saints is coming. 

Do the prophets of the Old Testament announce in 
joyful accents that there shall be a time when the knowl- 
edge of the Lord will cover the earth as the waters cover 
the face of the deep, they do so by declaring in unbroken 
symmetry of speech that this era of righteousness and 
splendor will be introduced by the Coming of the Holy 
One of Israel, even the Lord Jesus Christ. 

Does the Lord Jesus Christ Himself fortell the end 



J2 'THE SECOND COMING. 

of this age as a terrific crisis in the world's history; 
does He announce with all the ex-cathedra authority of 
headquarter's truth, with all the incontrovertible author- 
ity of Him who is The .Truth and no lie that the end of 
this age will be in wars, in the multiplication of law- 
lessness, the mob element rising and falling in its emo- 
tions with cries like the roaring of the seas, and men's 
hearts failing them with fear for looking after the things 
that are coming on the earth; does He raise the ques- 
tion whether faith, the faith, shall abide to the end; and 
would He give comfort in the darkness which His words 
seem to inspire, He does so, by assuring us that in the 
deepest hour of the earth's spiritual midnight He will 
Himself come as the Light of the world, that light with- 
out which the earth must abide in its darkness forever. 

In short, the Coming of Christ, considered as a testi- 
mony, is so bound up with the varied doctrines of the 
Word of God that it is impossible to neglect it without 
producing a fatal lack of emphasis in any doctrine 
preached. 

Let the preacher lose sight of the fact that Christ 
is coming back to this world as ;a glorified man, the 
man who was raised from the dead in the body in 
which He died, and it will not be long before he will 
lose sight of the veritable resurrection of Christ; and 
losing sight of that immortal body on the throne, the 
transition to the moment when the incarnation is to be 
seen only as an incident, and not as the perpetual incor- 
poration of the eternal God, will not be long deferred; 
nor will it be long before such a preacher will find himself 
upon the threshold of that unecclesiastical but all-per- 
vading Unitarianism which finds no need either of In- 
carnation or Resurrection. 



THE SECOND COMING. 73 

So bound up with the body of truth is this testimony 
of the Second Coming that there are doctrines which 
cannot be fully presented without holding them up in the 
light of it. 

This is illustrated in the doctrine of Atonement, and 
may be demonstrated by looking at the type in the 
wilderness. 

On the great day of Atonement after he had offered 
the sacrifice on the altar the high priest went within the 
veil into the most holy place to make atonement (and 
let it be remembered that the atonement was not made on 
the altar but within the veil as the type of Heaven, and 
that in fulfillment of that type the Lord Jesus Christ 
did not make atonement on the cross but in Heaven after 
His resurrection) ; the high priest let it be repeated 
went within the veil to make atonement, and not till he 
came out the second time, and not till the man who had 
led away the live goat came back in the sight of all the 
people without that sin offering could it be said that the 
atonement was complete and justified to the expectation 
of the people. Now says the Apostle referring to this 
event as only a shadow, and bringing into the mind of 
his hearers the substance, "So Christ was once offered to 
bear the sins of many; and to them that look for Him 
shall He appear the Second Time without sin (offering) 
unto salvation." Thus this whole dispensation is ante- 
typically the Day of Atonement, and its last emphasis 
will be the Coming of Christ. 

You might just as well take the auricle and ventricle 
out of the heart and expect that it would not affect the 
circulation of the blood as to imagine for a moment that 
the doctrine of the Second Coming can be neglected 
without affecting and deranging the whole body of truth. 



74 THE SECOND COMING. 

In the face of such testimony and demonstration, to 
neglect the preaching of the Second Coming seems well- 
nigh criminal ; and he who wilfully does it with the light 
of an open Bible before him is arranging for himself at 
the Judgment Seat of Christ a moment of shame and 
sorrow, the shame and sorrow of a workman who has not 
studied to show himself approved unto God, and who in 
the hour of his chosen responsibility failed to rightly 
divide His Word. 

From the Scriptural point of view the Coming of 
Christ is a Second Coming. 

It has been presented in such fashion that it might 
well be described as a many times coming. 

It is said that Christ came at the destruction of Jerusa- 
lem under the Romans, that He comes in pestilence and 
plague, whenever the clouds gather, the winds sweep, or 
the tidal waves rush upon the shore as they did at Gal- 
veston; that he comes each time a godly man dies, or a 
saintly woman goes home to God ; and in all reverence 
it may be said that only God Himself knows or can keep 
account of the different ways and times in which the 
Lord is to come as taught by those who have neglected 
the Scriptural declaration that "He shall appear the 
Second time." 

The statement that the destruction of Jerusalem was 
the Coming of Christ is one of those statements which 
has been repeated so often that it has all the sacredness 
of Holy Writ to a certain class of minds. 

The statement, however, is so entirely and excuse- 
lessly absurd that it seems scarcely worth the while even 
to reply to its repetition. 

The simple facts concerning the Destruction of Je- 
rusalem and its relation to the Coming of Christ are 



THE SECOND COMING. 75 

these: in the twenty-first of Luke, our Lord says three 
things : I. Jerusalem will be besieged and taken. 
2. Jerusalem will be trodden down by the Gentiles. 3. 
When the treading down by the Gentiles is fulfilled, 
"Then shall they see the Son of Man Coming." The 
order given by the Lord therefore is, 1. Jerusalem 
taken. 2. Jerusalem trodden down. 3. The appearing 
of Christ; thus a Whole Period, called the Treading 
Down of the Gentiles, occurs between the Destruction of 
Jerusalem and the Appearing of Christ a Second time. 

In the twenty-fourth of Matthew, the Lord declares 
that there shall be a Tribulation coming upon Jerusalem 
and Judea .such as the world has never known nor shall 
ever know again. 

This terrific Tribulation He declares will be followed 
immediately by His Appearing in Glory, as it is 
written : "Immediately after the tribulation of those days 
shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give 
her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the 
powers of the heavens shall be shaken ; and then shall 
appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven: and then 
shall all the tribes of the earth (of Judea, according to 
the context: v. 16^ 'Then let them which be in Judea 
flee into the mountains) ;' then shall all the tribes of the 
earth mourn, and they shall SE£ the Son of man Coming 
in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory." 

No such event took place immediately after the de- 
struction of Jerusalem by Titus, it never has taken place ; 
therefore the Tribulation cannot refer to any destruction 
of Jerusalem in the past, it is a tribulation in connection 
with Jerusalem in the future; and as the Appearing of 
Christ is to take place immediately after the tribulation, 
then the Second Appearing of Christ is still future; 



76 THB SECOND COMING. 

whatever else may be involved in the Tribulation it 
does not, it cannot teach that the destruction of Jerusa- 
lem centuries ago was the Coming of Christ. To as- 
sume that the agony of Jerusalem in that great siege, 
and the Providential visitation of judgment on the 
guilty people are equivalent to the Appearing of Christ; 
or, to assume that Christ came at all, even invisibly, are 
gratuitous suggestions and not exposition. 

To say that He who is health and strength, and who 
is promised to us in the glory of the Father comes in the 
Bubonic plague, in pestilence and famine, are contradic- 
tions of terms. 

To say that the wild lawless storm is the Coming of 
Christ, is to contradict the scene yonder in Galilee, when 
arising from the pillow in the hinder part of the ship 
where He had been asleep, He looked out upon the black, 
raging tempest, said, "Peace, be still," and thus became 
the end instead of beginning of the storm. 

But of all mistaken expositions is that which seeks 
to make death figure forth as the Second Coming 
of Christ. If it were not so grave a violation of the 
Word of God and every legitimate principle of exegesis 
it might well provoke the keenest and most merciless 
satire. But to the Word and the Testimony, what saith 
it? The answer is that so far from Christ coming to 
the believer at death, the believer at death goes To BE 
with Christ, even as it is written : "Having a desire to 
depart, and be with Christ." And yonder we have a 
scenic demonstration of it. Stephen has been con- 
demned to death by the Jewish Sanhedrin. In the coun- 
cil he looks up and sees the heavens open and Jesus 
standing at the right hand of God. He sees him stand- 
ing there just as one might stand at the threshold of his 



THE SECOND COMING. yy 

home if he desired to act the part of a cultured host in 
receiving his invited guests ; thus Jesus seeing the trag- 
edy approaching and the hour of the martyr's death and 
departure for heaven at hand, rises up in all the courtly 
love of the perfect host to receive His invited guest ; now 
they have their victim down upon his knees outside the 
gate, the stones raining upon him, marring his face 
as his Master's face was marred ; and knowing the end 
is near Stephen lifts up his voice beseechingly, for what ? 
That the Lord may come to him? Nay, he lifts up his 
voice and says : "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." Thus 
at death Stephen departs to be with his Lord. Where- 
fore speaking by inspiration the Apostle declares that at 
death we are "Absent from the body and present with 
the Lord." 

But yonder o,n the shore of the lake after His resur- 
rection the Lord Himself brings the truth to view in 
open demonstration. He had just told Peter how he 
might die, and Peter filled with that unconquerable spirit 
of the unfitness of things which had so often betrayed 
him turned to the Lord and demanded of Him what 
John should do. The Lord rebuked him, declaring that 
it was a matter that did not concern him, saying: "If I 
will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee ? Fol- 
low thou me." And we are told significantly, "then 
went this saying abroad among the brethren, that that 
disciple should not die." Now if the Coming of Christ 
meant death then the disciples ought to have said : "This 
man will surely die seeing that the Lord comes at death 
and has fixed the term of this man's service till He 
come." But just because they knew that the Lord was 
Life and therefore the enemy of death they said : 
"Since John is to wait till the Lord comes back, he will 
never die" 



78 THE SECOND COMING. 

It is true that the Lord had not said that John should 
positively wait until His return ; it is true He had only 
raised the question and drawn Peter's attention to the 
fact that this issue of waiting was a matter entirely de- 
pendent on His will, and that this was a domain into 
which Peter had no right to intrude; yet, nevertheless, 
the possibility that John might remain till the Second 
Coming was prima facie evidence to the disciples that 
John would not die. No more living demonstration could 
be given of the utter fallacy of the doctrine that the Com- 
ing of the Lord of Life means death. 

All this is in evidence that the Coming of Christ is not 
the thousand and one things applied to it as such, but 
that it is indeed, and in very truth, what the Apostle 
declares it to be, "A Second Appearing." 

According to Scripture the Coming of Christ is a 
Personal Coming. 

It is written : "The Lord himsexF shall descend from 
Heaven." 

Concerning this selfhood we are in no doubt. No 
sooner had He ascended into Heaven than the angels 
descended to comfort the hearts of the sorrowing dis- 
ciples with the sublime assurance : "Ye men of Galilee, 
why stand ye gazing up into Heaven, this same Jesus — 
shall so come in like manner." 

The same Jesus, He who walked by blue Galilee, who 
sat on the well-curb of Sychar with the shadows of noon 
under His feet, the dust of earth on His garments, the 
love of God in His heart, the grace of salvation on His 
lips, and the touch of healing in His hands. 

He is coming with the stigmata of the cross, so com- 
ing that every eye may see Him, and all they who 
pierced Him ; coming so that repentant Israel may ask, 



THE SECOND COMING. 79 

whence are these wounds in Thy hands and hear him 
answer that these are the wounds which He received in 
the house of His friends ; coming so that we may look at 
Him not only as He is, but as He was, looking upon 
Him with our eyes, hearing Him with our ears, and 
handling Him with our hands ; coming in the body which 
His mother Mary gave him, the dust of earth crys- 
tallized with immortality. 

The doctrine of Scripture is that the Second Personal 
Coming of Christ is Imminent. 

The Apostles believed that the Lord might come in 
their day. They believed He might come at any mo- 
ment, that at any turn of the road He might lay His 
hand upon them and with the sound of the trumpet shout 
them up into glory. 

So far from telling Christians to prepare for death and 
Heaven the Apostles exhorted them to be on the con- 
stant guard for the Lord's Return, assuring them that 
"we shall not all sleep (that is to say, die) and that there 
would be thus a possibility of belonging to that genera- 
tion to whom the Coming of the Lord could not mean 
death." They took up the exhortation of the Lord Him- 
self : "What I say unto you, I say unto all, Watch." 

As already shown they based their exhortations to 
every precept of Christian living on the imminency of 
this Coming, and couched these exhortations in such 
precision of language that there is no other alternative 
if this Coming is not imminent, but that these Apostles 
were either deceived or ignorant men, or wholly a set of 
shameless deceivers. 

Either dilemma whether of ignorance or wilful decep- 
tion is destructive to New Testament authority, vitiates 
every other doctrine, and rings the knell of their in- 
spiration. 



So THE SECOND COMING. 

Assuming, however, that the New Testament is the 
inspired word of God it follows inevitably that there is 
no warrant for the interposition of times and seasons 
between us and the Coming of our Lord. Certainly 
there is no warrant for that colossal heresy, that invented 
theory of a thousand years of Gospel triumph; no war- 
rant for that rhetorical sophistry that we are to have 
the "purple and gold of Millennial glory" before He 
comes. 

•Those who have the courage to proclaim the Post- 
millennial coming of the Son of God are forced_to do so 
with the assumption that they possess a knowledge as to 
the date of that supreme event not only greater than that 
of any other set of men, greater even than that of the 
angels of God, but greater than that of the Son of God 
Himself; for He who is supposed to be the final au- 
thority in the matter has said: "Of that day and that 
hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in 
heaven, neither the Son." 

There is no doubt that in the present state of the 
church it would be easy in any address to start the issue 
and the controversy as to the inspiration and infallibility 
of the Bible. 

There is a school of preaching which teaches that the 
Bible is true only in spots ; and that those who would 
read it must do so by a hop skip and jump method, hop- 
ping clear over to the other side of the Hexateuch, skip- 
ping Joshua and the Judges, skipping the Synoptics, 
jumping over a large part of the Johannic gospel, quietly 
but skilfully leaping over the book of Acts as a gymnast 
will leap over a patch-work quilt spread beneath him, 
and at the book of the Revelation not jumping at all, con- 
sidering that book no more worthy of attention than a 
wild man's ravings. 



THM SECOND COMING. 8i 

No doubt battles can be fought over the question as to 
whether the Bible is true or false, but there is one fact 
about which no intelligent well-read man has any right 
to have a single second's issue, and that is : the New 
Testament does say in language which it is impossible to 
mistake, that the Coming of Christ is imminent, that it 
may take place at any moment. 

He, therefore, who places ten days or a thousand years 
between us and the Coming of the Lord contradicts Him. 
falsifies Him, and charges Him with fallibility within 
the sound of His own words : "Watch therefore ; for ye 
know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of 
man cometh." 

.The Coming of Christ is the one event which in 
Scripture is always on the horizon and like the sunlight, 
illuminates all the theologic landscape with its glow and 
color. So emphasized is this imminency that he who 
should read the New Testament for the first time would 
close the book with the involuntary impression that the 
next thing was the Coming of Christ. 

The Coming of Christ, while one grand event, has Two 
distinct stages, or parts ; a Secret, and an Open or Public 
part. 

In the first He comes into the air, in the second to the 
Mount of Olives ; in the first He comes to the church, 
in the second to Israel ; in the first He comes for His 
Church, in the second with His Church ; in the first He 
comes to a marriage, in the second to a judgment; in 
the first as a Bridegroom, in the second as the King; in 
the first to gather the Church and present it to Himself, 
a holy and acceptable Church, in the second, to establish 
His kingdom, and with the church in righteousness rule 
the earth. 



82 THB SECOND COMING. 

The first part is symbolized by the morning star, the 
second by the rising of the sun ; the first by the thief who 
comes in the night without warning, the second by the 
lightning that flashes across the sky with accompany- 
ing thunder; in the first part the church will be caught 
away into the air secretly as Enoch was caught away 
before the flood, as Lot was snatched out of Sodom be- 
fore the fire, as Elijah was swept up to glory without 
dying, as Paul was caught up to the third heavens alive, 
and as the Son of God Himself passed upward into and 
through the heavens to the throne of God without the 
knowledge of the world. 

This first part in the Greek is called Parousia, and 
means His Bodily Presence; the second in the same lan- 
guage is called the Epiphaniea, and means the Manifesta- 
tion of His Bodily Presence ; the first is called "Our 
Gathering together unto Him," the second "Our Appear- 
ing with Him in Glory," or the Glorious Appearing ; the 
first is commonly spoken of in Scripture as the "Com- 
ing of the Lord," the second is known as "The Day of 
the Lord." 

Between these two parts of the second Advent there 
are at least seven prophetic years, and these seven years 
form the burden of the book of Daniel and the book of 
Revelation. 

Between us and the Secret Coming of the Lord, the 
Parousia, there is not a single predicted event ; between 
us and the second part of this Second Coming there 
are many predicted events, the universal European war, 
the restoration of Israel to their own land, the rise of 
Antichrist, and the final union of all the Eastern nations 
under Russia as the Gog and Magog of Ezekiel. 

The attitude of the church is locally and practically in 



THB SECOND COMING. 83 

relation to the first or secret part of our Lord's Coming, 
while the attitude of Israel is, and must always be, 
towards the open, or glorious Coming. Israel's attitude 
is that of waiting for a sign, the church's attitude is that 
of waiting for a sound ; just as Israel of old were wait- 
ing on the hither side of Jordan for the sound of a 
trump that they might go over and possess the Land, so 
the church is waiting on the hither side of time for the 
sound of the trump of God that she may go over and 
possess in the glory of her promised immortality all the 
land that lieth beyond the shadow of death. 

The Coming of Christ is held out as "The Blessed 
Hope" of the church. Nowhere are Christians exhorted 
to prepare for death or hope for Heaven, but always, 
without a single break in the utterance, to watch, to wait, 
to hope for the Coming of the Lord. 

And well may the church so watch, and wait, and hope ; 
that Coming means the end of her long and weary 
pilgrimage, it means the putting off the garments of the 
traveller and putting on the garments of home ; it means 
the triumph over sin, sickness, sorrow and death ; it 
means no longer the world's suppliant, but its ruler; it 
means the presence of the king, the possession of His 
likeness, the share of His throne, and the administration 
of His kingdom ; it means everything for which the 
church has hoped and prayed, all for which she has 
striven and endured ; it means the girding her with final 
power for the accomplishment of all the purpose for 
which God determined her from the unbeginning depths 
of eternity; it means the accomplishment in certitude of 
that which is now sought with hesitation and uncertain 
success : the bringing of the whole world at last to the 
feet of the Crucified, where with unspeakable joy she 



84 THE SECOND COMING. 

may hear every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, 
to the glory of God the Father ; it means the reaching of 
that moment when there will be no longer the need of 
intercession for erring saints, seeing that each saint shall 
be shining in all the glory of the Intercessor; it means 
no longer the need of the written Word, nor of teachers, 
seeing that "All shall know the Lord from the least to 
the greatest," as He says, "I will put my laws into their 
mind, and write them in their hearts," and shall Him- 
self, as. the source of the written Word, be the living, 
present and infallible Revelation of God's mind to men ; 
oh, this Coming of Christ and the Translation of the 
Church means the fulfillment as human minds have little 
dreamed of that immense promise that "The knowl- 
edge of the Lord shall cover the earth as the waters the 
face of the deep." 

Small wonder is it that the Coming of Christ is called 
the Blessed Hope to the church when it means her exal- 
tation, the triumph of her Lord, and the salvation of the 
whole world; but wonder beyond measure it is that in 
the face of the fact that the beginning of these "days 
of Heaven on earth" is imminent in the imminent Com- 
ing of our Lord, and in the face of the fact that all Scrip- 
ture proclaims it, that the church in any part of it 
whether in pulpit or in pew should turn her back upon 
it; or that any of her accredited ministers should ne- 
glect the story of it, seek to hide the beauty of its shining, 
or rob the sorrowing of the blessedness of its comfort. 

The Coming of Christ, and in its last analysis, the ap- 
pearing of Christ in glory, is the only hope for Israel ; 
and this is concretely illustrated in the story of Paul's 
conversion : he was never converted by the preaching of 
the Gospel, but by the appearing of Christ in glory above 
the Damascus gates. 



THE SECOND COMING. 85 

He tells us that he is as one born out of due time, and 
therefore set ahead of the time that he might be a proph- 
ecy and pledge of the way and manner in which his 
own nation should afterwards be saved. 

Only when Israel shall see their Messiah coming in 
glory will they believe on Him ; then shall they be in 
mourning for Him as one mourneth for the dead; then 
shall they take up the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah and 
chant with lamentation and mingled hope before Him: 
"We did esteem Him stricken, smitten of God, and 
afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, 
He was bruised for our iniquities ; the chastisement of 
our peace was upon Him ; and with His stripes we are 
healed;" then shall a fountain be opened for uncleanness 
and sin in the City of David, and so, "All Israel shall be 
saved," in fulfillment of that promise that, "The De- 
liverer shall come unto Zion and turn away ungodliness 
from Jacob." 

Only when Messiah the Lord shall come in glory can 
Israel become the "Head and no longer the Tail of na- 
tions." Only when Christ the Lord comes to take the 
throne of His father David will Israel and Judah fully 
enter into and possess the Covenant land. 

The Coming of Christ then is that one event which 
holds out hope for this people "scattered and peeled." 

The Coming of Christ taken in its completed sense is 
the only hope of the world governmentally. 

Over all the vain endeavors at self government, over 
all the uprise of human plans in governmental schemes, 
over monarchy and mob, may be heard the voice of God 
saying: "I will overturn it, I will overturn it till He 
comes whose right it is to reign ; and I will give it 
Him." Only when the Lord's judgments are in the 



86 THE SECOND COMING. 

earth, so it is written, "will the people learn righteous- 
ness." Only when government is administered in the 
hands of a righteous man, God's Man, the Second and 
Eternal Man, will men beat their swords into plough- 
shares and their spears into pruning hooks. 

In short, only by the Coming of Christ will the fail- 
ure of the first man be undone, the subtlety of Satan be 
matched, sin be uprooted, death be abolished, redemption 
be completed, Paradise be regained, and the whole earth 
be filled with the glory of God. 

Such is this doctrine which in many quarters of the 
church has practically fallen out of the scheme of 
preaching. 

All the more then because of the neglect of it, it ought 
to be preached. This is indeed Apostolic principle. 
Just as soon as the Apostle warns Timothy the young 
preacher that the time is coming when the church will 
no longer endure sound doctrine, he urges him by all 
means to preach it "in season and out of season." 

This doctrine of the Second Coming therefore ought 
to be preached, and insistently and fully preached. 

It ought to be preached in order that the church might 
not get a false concept of her relation to the world in 
this age, and that she might not continue to think that 
her only way to Heaven and glory was through the dark- 
ness and gloom of the grave. It ought to be preached in 
order that she might always be on the alert to proclaim 
the Gospel committed to her charge, lest coming suddenly 
the Lord should find her asleep on the bosom of a dead 
world. 

It ought to be preached in order that the elect remnant 
in Israel might as in the days of Pentecost believe and 
become a part of the church, thus attaining, even, unto 
more than natural blessing, 



THE SECOND COMING. 87 

It ought to be preached that the men of the world 
might see that there is something more imminent than 
death, and that at any moment the Master might rise 
up and shut to the door of grace. 

It ought to be preached by the preacher for his own 
benefit, in order that he might see the stately march of 
all the doctrines of the Word of God as they move for- 
ward in serried rank and cast their trophies at the feet of 
the Coming King, saluting Him as the inspiration and 
objective of them all. 

The doctrine cannot be preached too much. 

No more gratuitous libel was ever circulated than the 
assertion that the preaching of it has in it a tendency to 
lead the preacher to ride it as a hobby. Let any man try 
to ride it as a hobby and he will find instead that he is 
riding in the chariot car of God's glory, and that every 
spoke in every wheel is flashing forth every other doc- 
trine, testifying that every doctrine consummates itself 
in this Doctrine of doctrines ; and that this identical doc- 
trine is being born swiftly and triumphantly forward 
because it rests on the revolution of all other doctrines. 

No man can faithfully preach the Second Coming and 
neglect any doctrine of the Word. No man who be- 
lieves in the imminent Coming of the Lord and knows 
how to preach it will ever be guilty of denying the in- 
spiration, of that Word, the resurrection of the body, or 
the glory and necessity of Atonement. If any of the 
fundamental doctrines are neglected, as it is charged in 
"Modern Preaching," the neglect will not be found 
crouching at the door of him who preaches the Coming 
of his Lord. 

Nay, let any one take up this doctrine and preach it, it 



SS THE SECOND COMING. 

will make the Risen and Ascended Lord the most real 
thing in all the universe of God to him ; it will keep the 
door in Heaven open and let the light from the land of 
the living fall across the land of the dying; it will keep 
the ear open and alert to hear the sound of His voice; it 
will sweep through the soul like a purifying breath from 
the lips of the King, leading that soul to purify itself, as 
it is written, "He that hath this Hope on Him, purifieth 
himself, even as He is pure;" it will make the written 
Word to shine as a burnished mirror, reflecting the glory 
of God; it will gird him who believes and preaches it, 
in the face of any pain or disaster, with all the strength 
of one who sore beleagured hears the sound of deliver- 
ing footsteps ; or, as of one who in the dark and black 
night feels the gleam of coming day upon his brow. 

If to-day Jesus Christ is the supreme actuality of my 
life; if to-day this written Word is to me the symphony 
of Heaven and of earth ; if to-day my faith is stronger 
and my hope brighter; if to-day in face of the world's 
deepening pessimism, its weakness, weariness and woe, 
I find myself filled with an unconquerable optimism, with 
an unhesitating faith in God's ultimate and infinite tri- 
umph, it is because I believe that at any moment I may 
hear a voice like the voice of a trumpet talking with me 
and saying, "Come up hither;" and that in an instant, 
in the twinkling of an eye, I may be in His presence, not 
to lay the armor down and be at rest, but to come forth 
clad in the Master's likeness, and with Him descend as 
He goes forth to take His own world again, taking it as 
He will, by creation's undisputed right, by blood re- 
demption and kingly conquest. 

* * " * * * * * ** 

Let no man fear that in preaching the Second Coming 
he is committed to the minimizing of the cross. 



THE SECOND COMING. 89 

Nay, rather, let us hold up the cross till men shall see 
it as the very heart throb of God, the mighty manifesta- 
tion of His measureless love; let us hold it up till it 
shall be seen that all the claims of Divine righteousness 
have been fully and finally met there; let us hold it up 
till men shall see that it is no longer the Sin question 
but the Son question; let us hold it up till men shall see 
the crown of thorns stabbing His brow and marring His 
face as no face of man was ever marred ; but let us hold 
it up so that men may see that this marred and crucified 
One is also the risen and glorified One ; yea, let us so 
hold it up that men may see that this risen and glorified 
One, this "Man in Glory," is coming back in the body in 
which he was crucified, "This same Jesus :" yea and 
amen, let us hold it up for every eye like that of the 
serpent-bitten Israelite to see ; but let us hold it up in 
the light of that Second Coming, till as men cast their 
gaze upon it they shall behold the crown of thorns slowly 
but surely transforming into the crown of Glory on the 
radiant head of your Coming King and mine. 



AN ADDRESS ON THE 
HOLY SPIRIT. 



M Address on foe f>oly Spirit 



The Holy Ghost which is in you. — / Cor. vi: ig. 



THE TWOFOLD OFFICE. 

In the New Testament the Holy Spirit is presented to 
us as filling two distinct offices. In the one He is the 
Comforter, in the other He is the Enduer. As Com- 
forter He operates in the Church, as Enduer He op- 
erates through the Church. As Comforter He hides 
Himself, as Enduer He reveals Himself. In the one He 
is a revelator, in the other an administrator. As Com- 
forter He is the promise of the Son, as Enduer He is the 
promise of the Father. As the Comforter His coming 
has to do exclusively with the Church, as Enduer His 
coming had to do primarily with Israel. 

The Holy Spirit, as Comforter, is given by the risen 
Son of God; the Holy Spirit, as Enduer, is sent by the 
exalted Lord and Christ. The gift of the Comforter is 
based on the prayer of Christ, the gift of the Enduer is 
based on the words of a prophet. The Comforter an- 
nounces the beginning of the Church, the Enduer an- 
nounces the opening of the Kingdom of Heaven. The 
objective work of the Comforter is consolation to troubled 
disciples, the objective work, of the Enduer is aggres- 
sive power to waiting witnesses. The Comforter links 
us to Christ, the Enduer links us to one another in Christ. 

Thus the office of the Holy Spirit is twofold and dis- 
tinct ; so is His inauguration into those two offices. 

The Holy Spirit, as Comforter, did not come on the 

93 



94 THE HOLY SPIRIT. 

Day of Pentecost. Pentecost is in no sense the coming 
of the Comforter. At Pentecost there is no thought of 
consolation for sorrowing orphans, but demonstration of 
power to helpless messengers. The Comforter as prom- 
ised in John xiv, was to make manifest the presence of 
Christ; the coming of the Holy Spirit, as recorded at 
Pentecost, made evident the absence of Christ. The 
Comforter was to make known the presence of Christ 
down here ; Pentecost made it clear that the presence was 
up there. The Comforter was to make known that 
Christ is here to the end of the age ; Pentecost proclaimed 
that Christ cannot be here till the end of the age. 

The coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost was not 
altogether a new thing ; the coming of the Comforter, as 
promised, was something entirely new : this promise was 
that the Holy Spirit should be a permanent abiding 
presence, in the bodies of men. Such an indwelling of 
the Spirit had never taken place. The Holy Spirit never 
dwelt as an abiding presence in any man, not in Adam, 
or Abraham, or Moses, or John the Baptist. He had 
moved men; He had filled them, filled them from their 
birth, but He had never stayed in men continuously. 
David could pray, "Take not Thy Holy Spirit from me." 
No man who has the Spirit of God can offer that prayer 
to-day without being guilty of excuseless ignorance, be- 
cause the Holy Spirit, as an abiding presence in any 
man, is there as a seal, "sealing him unto the day of re- 
demption." 

Men could ask the Father, in the days of Christ, to 
send them the Holy Spirit. In this day no child of God 
can offer that prayer without confessing ignorance of the 
Word of God, because when the Spirit comes to take up 
His abode in the body, that body becomes the temple of 



THE HOLY SPIRIT. 95 

the Holy Spirit, which Spirit, saith an apostle, "is in 
you, which ye have of God." 

The Comforter, as the promised continual indwelling 
of the Spirit, was thus something new, and as the coming 
of the Spirit at Pentecost was not wholly new, then Pen- 
tecost was not the coming of the Comforter. 

The Comforter as an indwelling presence was prom- 
ised directly to all believers, but on the day of Pentecost 
the Holy Spirit came directly only on the original dis- 
ciples. To all others He was communicated, not when 
they believed, but after they believed; not by the Spirit 
Himself, but by the laying-on of the hands of the 
Apostles. As the Comforter was to be the heritage of all 
believers, and the manifestation of Pentecost was only 
upon the Apostles, it is evident that Pentecost is not the 
inauguration of the Comforter. 

At Pentecost the Holy Spirit came audibly and vis- 
ibly, as a rushing, mighty wind, as flaming tongues of 
fire, and His presence was made known to all in Jerusa- 
lem. But the Son of God declared that when the Com- 
forter should come the world would not see Him, the 
world would not know Him. The coming of the Holy 
Spirit at Pentecost therefore stands in direct contrast and 
contradiction to the manner in which the Comforter was 
promised to come by the Son of God Himself. Nay, 
more! The Apostle Peter in his sermon on the day of 
Pentecost declares that Pentecost and the coming of the 
Comforter cannot be one and the same thing. Saint 
Peter declares that Pentecost is the begun fulfillment of 
the prophecy of Joel. This prophecy is the promise of 
the Father. The promise of the Father was to restore 
the kingdom in Israel. Pentecost is therefore the 
answer of Jesus Christ from heaven to the question of 



96 THE HOLY SPIRIT. 

His disciples as recorded in the first chapter of the Acts. 
"Wilt thou," they said, "at this time restore the king- 
dom to Israel?" When our Lord promised the Com- 
forter, none of the disciples thought of asking Him about 
the kingdom, but the moment, yonder at Bethany, that 
He spoke of the outpouring of the Spirit as the promise 
of the Father immediately they said unto Him, "Wilt 
thou, at this time," that is to say, at the outpouring, "re- 
store the kingdom to Israel ?" 

Between the promise and the question there is the 
link of eternal logic, for that promise of God written 
here in the Prophet Joel, had been made in connection 
with the announcement of the day of the Lord, and the 
setting-up of Israel, as the head and no longer the tail 
of the nations. And thus Pentecost is the affirmative 
answer to the question. By that mighty outpouring, by 
that tongue of fire, by that prophetic voice, He says 
unto them : "Yea and amen, as Jehovah of Israel, as the 
Wonderful, the Counsellor, the Mighty God, the Ever- 
lasting Father, the Prince of Peace, I will restore the 
kingdom unto Israel now, if Israel will receive Me as 
the King." And turning to them Peter says : "Repent 
and convert, that your sins may be blotted out, so that 
the times of refreshing (the outpouring of the Spirit), 
may come from the presence of the Lord, and He will 
send Jesus Christ, who before was preached unto you 
'as your King.' " 

Thus, according to Saint Peter, Pentecost is the begun 
fulfillment of a promise which antedates the promise of 
a Comforter eight hundred years. Now the promise 
made eight hundred years before Christ, and in con- 
nection with the kingdom in Israel, cannot be the promise 
which Christ gives eight hundred years after, solely in 
relation to the church in the world. 



THE HOLY SPIRIT. 97 

But if it be still held that Pentecost is the fulfillment 
of the promise of the Comforter, then it must be said 
that not only does the day of Pentecost fail to show a 
single line or characteristic of that promise, not only 
does it contradict everything that is said of the Com- 
forter, but it goes further, it absolutely ignores the most 
stupendous event in the history of the Holy Spirit in 
His relation to men. 

That event is recorded in the Gospel according to Saint 
John xx : 22. On the evening of the day on which our 
Lord rises from the dead, He meets His disciples, 
breathes upon them and says : "Receive ye the Holy 
Ghost." This is fifty days before Pentecost, almost two 
months. If Pentecost is the fulfillment of the promised 
Comforter, then this supreme moment, this first act of the 
risen Son of God must be ignored and set aside. It has 
been ignored and set aside in theology altogether. But 
you cannot ignore it with impunity. It is there ; you 
must account for it. It is an actual coming of the Holy 
Spirit. He comes from Christ. Christ gives Him. 
Christ sends Him. He says to His disciples : "Receive 
ye the Holy Ghost." It is an utterly inadmissable ex- 
egesis which teaches that Christ leaves it to the will and 
option of the disciples whether they will receive the 
Spirit. That declaration "Receive ye," is neither an in- 
vitation nor a command. It is an explanation. Ho 
breathes on them before He says a word about the Holy 
Spirit. He breathes on them, He communicates His 
breath to them, He sends it into them, and then He says : 
"Receive ye the Holy Ghost." By these words He de- 
clares to all time that the disciples had received the Holy 
Spirit in receiving His breath. He had sent them the 
Holy Spirit ; He had sent Him two months before Pente- 
cost. 



98 THE HOLY SPIRIT. 

And now, mark the manner in which the Holy Spirit 
comes here, no rushing mighty sound, no whirling wind 
from heaven, no fire of flaming tongues, nothing the 
world saw or heard, but, secretly, quietly. 

Mark, I pray you, the meaning of that coming. It is 
emphasized in one word, "Peace." There is no thought 
of energy here, no thought of aggression, or objective 
action, or power. It is comfort, it is consolation. 

Mark the attitude of Jesus, in this case, as contrasted 
with His attitude at Pentecost. At Pentecost He is the 
exalted Lord and Christ ; here He is the risen Son of 
God not yet exalted. There He sends the Holy Spirit 
as the executive of His will and power; here He gives 
the Holy Spirit as another friend and companion. There 
as the head of Israel, here as the head of a new race. 
There he lifts the sceptre, here He communicates life 
and peace, His own very presence. At Pentecost He 
says : "Behold, I send you the promise of the Father ;" 
here, upon the edge of the open grave, on the resurrec- 
tion side of it, with His feet upon the threshold of 
heaven, He says : "I fulfill my promise, I give myself, 
my life, my love, all I am, to be in you and with you." 

Here, fifty days before Pentecost, you have every char- 
acteristic of John xiv, every characteristic of the prom- 
ised Comforter. Here is a scene and circumstance which 
present themselves as the fitting inauguration of the 
Spirit into the sublime office of the Comforter, just as 
fittingly as at Pentecost when He was more openly and 
with greater accessories inaugurated into the equally 
sublime office of the Enduer. 

This twofold office of the Holy Spirit, and the lapse 
of time between their initial moments, are not intended 
to exalt the one, or ignore the other; but to set before 



THE HOLY SPIRIT. 99 

us the beauty, the blessedness, and the distinctive values 
in the operation of the one only and eternal Spirit of 
our God. 



THE WORK OF THE COMFORTER. 

The work of the Comforter is clear and simple. He be- 
gins the church. He begins Christianity as a vital force 
in the believer's soul. He links him in organic union 
with a living, risen Head. He forms within Him the 
Christ, the hope of glory. He testifies of Christ. He 
glorifies Christ. He brings to remembrance the words 
of Christ. He feeds the soul with the truth of Christ. 
He guides us into all the truth of Christ. He 
shows us the things of Christ. He so subordinates 
Himself to the will and personality of Christ that He 
becomes the other very self of Christ. But he goes 
above and beyond all this : not only does He come to put 
a new nature in the soul, He comes to manifest the very 
presence of Christ in the soul ; to make Christ dwell in 
His personality in the soul ; so that Christ shall be up 
yonder in His glorified body as He was in vision above 
the ladder which Jacob saw, and yet here in the soul, 
an invisible presence, as Jacob felt and found Him by 
Bethel's stony pillow. Yea, His work in us is to make 
Christ as real to us as though He walked flesh-veiled by 
our side. To so continue His presence to us that the 
gap may be filled between the open grave and the ex- 
alted throne ; between the risen Master and the man in 
the glory. To so continue that presence that Christ Him- 
self shall minister to our need, as though we looked Him 
in the face, felt the sympathy of His shining tears, and 



LofC. 



ioo THE HOLY SPIRIT. 

caught the touch of His guiding hand. To so con- 
tinue Christ in us that Christ shall give us His faith, 
His peace, His joy, His hope, His power: until when 
we walk, we may walk by His faith, be calm in His 
peace, be glad in His joy, be encouraged in His hope, 
and strong in His power. For, if we will be obedient, 
the Comforter will give us the very power of Christ, 
power for the mind ; so that we may see the wondrous 
things which Christ Himself has inspired in the match- 
less Book. He will give us power, power for our bodies, 
so that we may not faint, nor grow weary in His ser- 
vice. If we will let Him, the Comforter will so keep 
the communication unbroken with yonder heaven that 
Jesus Himself shall come down invisibly and walk with 
us the weary way; and we shall feel no pain or sorrow 
or weakness where He leads. 

Oh! the wonder, the joy of it, and the unspeakable 
glory! The Holy Spirit here! here to continue the 
presence of Christ to us, to make us conscious of Him, 
to fill us with Him till our hearts shall be as a Holy 
of Holies; so that we may enter in, even here, into the 
secret of His presence, and be glad with a great gladness. 

Thus the work of the Comforter in relation to us is 
subjective, in us and for us. We occupy the attitude 
of recipients, not of those who act, but of those who are 
acted upon. The Comforter will bring us into the place 
of power, no doubt, but power is not the objective of His 
work; it is peace, joy, companionship, increasing com- 
panionship. It is Jesus Himself with us, all the cen- 
turies blotted out, all the past history gone between 
Judea and this hour. Jesus with us, talking with us, 
feeding us, and every day revealing Himself to us. 

Such, indeed, is the work of the Comforter, that Com- 



THE HOLY SPIRIT. 101 

forter who comes as the breath of the risen Christ into 
every heart that belives on Him ; and at the moment, the 
instant of belief. 

A person filled with the breath of Christ! What a. 
definition that is for a Christian ; and what a suggestion 
of infinite comfort, of abiding peace. 



THE WORK OF THE ENDUER. 

The work of the Holy Spirit as Enduer, is equally 
clear. On the day of Pentecost He opened the Kingdom 
of Heaven to the Jew, but, according to the seventh 
chapter of the Book of Acts, the Jews rose up and shut 
the door in the Spirit's face, martyred Stephen, and 
piled the stones above him as a witness that they re- 
jected a risen Lord, even as they had crucified a seeking 
King. At once the Spirit postponed the kingdom in 
Israel, turned to the Gentiles, opened to them the king- 
dom spiritually, set aside Peter, called Paul, through him 
revealed the doctrine of the church ; and from henceforth 
began to work, not to extend the kingdom in the world, 
but to withdraw men from the world into the kingdom ; 
to build up the Church of Christ, not as a kingdom, but 
as the temple of God for a coming kingdom. To call 
out the church as the body of Christ, as the royal family, 
as the aristocrats, the choice ones, who should reign and 
rule in the kingdom and glory yet to come. 

At Pentecost the Spirit became the environment into 
which the Jewish nucleus of the church was baptized into 
a supernatural body. At Csesarea, at the house of Cor- 
nelius, the act of baptism was performed by the Son of 
God for the last time, when the Gentile incomers were 



102 THE HOLY SPIRIT. 

baptized with the Jewish nucleus into one body, into that 
body where there is neither Jew nor Gentile. 

The baptism in. the Holy Spirit being completed, and 
the church as a spiritual body being set in the Holy 
Spirit as the divine environment, from that time to this, 
the Spirit has been in the church, corporately and in- 
dividually, both as Comforter and Enduer; as Enduer 
more particularly in relation to the church corporately. 
As the Enduer and Administrator from on high, He is 
here in the church, to appoint the officers, to call and 
ordain pastors, to call, ordain and send forth evangelists ; 
to raise the money needed by the Son of God; to direct 
its service, its singing, its praying and preaching. To 
make the church so divine, so supernatural, that unbelief 
shall go out of it, and doubt shall not dare to enter it. 
He is here to make the church repulsive as well as at- 
tractive. Repulsive to all who are not called of God. 
He is here as the presiding presence, the Vicar of Christ, 
as His agent, as the true Pope, to do what Christ would 
do if present, personally, in His very body. He is here 
to carry the church forward as a force for God, as an 
impingement on the lives of men, till the last one fore- 
known of God shall be added to the Lord and the hour 
of the kingdom shall sound. He is here with all the 
power necessary to carry on the church in any age, and 
under any condition. All the gifts which He brought at 
Pentecost are in His possession to-day; and He is ready 
to distribute them according to faith and the special need 
of the hour. He is ready to work in us and through us, 
so that we may go forth to the world as very Jesus 
Christ, risen, glorified and multiplied a millionfold, so 
that the incarnate Christ shall be no longer local, but 
omnipresent, opening through us the eyes of the blind, 



THE HOLY SPIRIT. 103 

giving strength to the lame, giving speech to the dumb, 
and hearing to the deaf; making the lame man to leap 
as the hart, and raising the dead to the new life in God, 
working through us with the measureless power with 
which He wrought us in Christ, in every land and among 
all people. 

Thus the twofold work of the Spirit, as Comforter 
and Enduer, finds its ultimate unity in the purpose to 
make the church in her journey through the age, di- 
vinely glad and divinely strong. He is here as divine 
comfort and infinite might ; and thus equipped, the church 
needs nothing more. She need raise no prayer to yonder 
throne or cry aloud to heaven for added means, for the 
Lord her God, in the midst of her, is mighty. All power 
in heaven and earth is given to Him, and in giving Him- 
self to her to be with her and in her, He has given to her 
all power. 



WHY WE FAIL. 

Why, then, do we fail? Why do the ruins of our 
failure strew our path ? Why, above these ruins, do we 
cry and plead and fret those heavens as though God Him- 
self were unwilling or unable to meet our need? 

Alas ! The question is all too> easily answered. We 
fail because we grieve the Holy Spirit who dwells within 
us ; we grieve Him by ignoring His presence. Day after 
day we cry and beseech our God that He will pour out 
His Holy Spirit ; and lo ! He is here. We seek to invent 
schemes and plans which shall give us power ; and lo ! 
He is in us, the very energy of God. We grieve Him by 
setting aside His methods. We go forth to cleanse So- 



104 THB HOLY SPIRIT. 

dom, and He bids us come out of it. We speak to men 
of reformation, He bids us talk of regeneration. We 
seek to christianize the world, and He tells us to gospelize 
it. We try to take the kingdoms of time with the sceptre 
of the Gospel, and He tells us that Christ alone can take 
them with a rod of iron. We try to legislate evil out of 
the earth, and He has said I will overturn it, overturn it, 
till He comes whose right it is to reign. We talk to men 
of the purple and the gold of coming days, when the 
church shall enthrone herself upon the hearts of men, 
and He tells us that, in the end of this Gospel age, Anti- 
christ shall sit in the Temple of God. We congratulate 
the listening throng with the pleasant tale that the world 
is growing better and marching on to millennial peace, 
and he tells us, and draws our attention to it expressly, 
that in the last days, perilous times shall come ; and thus 
we grieve Him by contradicting Him and denying His 
testimony at every turn. 

We grieve Him again and again, by making secondary 
the only tongue by which He can speak to us, the only 
tongue by which He can fling the fire and the flame of 
truth into the inmost soul, this written Word. We allow 
men to hold it up and tell us that it is full of errors, that 
it is a composite of divine foolishness and human cre- 
dulity. And we sit at the feet of such men and exalt 
them into the place of honor and call them the teachers of 
the truth, the wise men of the church. 

We grieve Him by setting aside the first century for 
the nineteenth, this century of rationalism, materialism, 
and insane optimism. We preach the Gospel, and we 
think we must do it in the pride of human learning and 
the vanity of human understanding. We grieve Him in 
the administration of the church. He is the President 



THE HOLY SPIRIT. 105 

and Vicar, and we seek vicars and presidents among 
men. He has the power and authority to appoint the 
officers of the church, and we take it in our own hands 
to appoint them. He gives the endowment of service 
through faith, and we seek to get it through sight. He 
has made the church with as little machinery as pos- 
sible, and we seek to fill it with as much as we can. He 
appeals continually to the sense of the uncommon in us, 
and we appeal to the common sense in us. His way is 
to add to the Lord and multiply the church through 
addition, our way is to multiply the church and fail in 
the divine addition. His way is to bring out sin to the 
light and judge it, our way is to cover it up and forget 
it. In short, He is here to sit in the seat of Jesus Christ 
and be His other self, and to guide the church with His 
awful presence ; and we talk of Him as of a thing imper- 
sonal, an abstraction, thin as air. Doctrinally, He has 
fallen out of practice, until to-day, He is almost unknown 
as a personal factor in the church ; so that it might be said 
with truth of many churches, as of old the Ephesians 
said of themselves, "that they had not so much as heard 
whether there be a Holy Ghost." 

We grieve Him in our personal lives. We are full 
of worry and fret — and carefulness and pride, unworthy 
ambition and lustful emulation. We regulate our lives, 
not by the cloudy, fiery pillar of the divine presence, 
but by our hopes and fears ! and then we go out to men 
and talk to them, and wonder why they do not see God 
and turn unto Him. We preach to men that Christ 
offered Himself without spot to God through the eternal 
Spirit, and then refuse to offer ourselves without spot to 
God through the same Spirit. 

Look yonder, I pray you, at that scene on Mount Car- 



106 THE HOLY SPIRIT. 

mel's top. Elijah declared that the God who answereth 
by fire is the only God. He built the altar, laid the wood, 
dug the trench, drew the water and poured it forth, but 
there was no fire. Then He took a bullock, slew it, cut it 
in pieces and laid it on the altar as a whole burnt offering, 
and waiting till the hour of the evening sacrifice, cried 
aloud unto God. In giving God the whole burnt offering, 
he gave Him all, he kept nothing back; and the fire came, 
the God who answereth by fire answered him. Ah, my 
brethren, we have built the altar, laid the wood, dug the 
trench, brought the water and poured it forth, but there 
has been no fire. There has been no fire, because there 
has been no burnt offering ; and the burnt offering means, 
everything given to God, nothing kept back, God getting 
all, getting ourselves ; and, alas, some of us, in these years 
past have been giving God everything else but that, 
everything else but — ourselves. 

If we would have the fire we must go back to that sac- 
rificial hour, yonder, in the evening of the days, to the 
cross of Christ, and cry aloud to God, and say to Him : 
"Oh, God ! I give Thee not what I have, but what I am, 
my own dear self. I nail myself to that altar-cross, and 
I say unto Thee, 'I die.' I crucify, by faith, everything 
which does not find its root in Thee I" And the fire will 
come, not from above, but from within, where it has been 
almost quenched, the Spirit of the living God, a leaping, 
flowing, cleansing fire. It will turn into ashes our human 
will and pride, our vanity and conceit; and we shall die, 
slain by the gleaming Spirit, as a thing devoted unto God, 
and made holy to His use for evermore. 

May God help us to climb the Carmel heights and lay 
ourselves on that dear altar of our Master's cross, and 
die in Him, die to every claim of self; and rise with Him, 



THE HOLY SPIRIT. 107 

and with Him go forth in the tireless Spirit of the living 
God, to speak the word of cheer, to sound the word of 
hope, and give the touch of help and life to lost and 
dying men. Go forth, glad in the divine gladness, strong 
in the divine strength, filled with peace and endued with 
power. 



THE TWO NATURES. 



Cbc two natures* 



The flesh lusteth against the spirit, and 
the spirit against the flesh: these are 
contrary the one to the other. — Galatians v: 77. 



Every Christian has a conscious experience of the Two 
Natures. 

Few Christians know anything of the doctrine of the 
Two Natures. Having the experience and not able to 
account for it there is much sorrow and discouragement. 
For example, the young convert is rejoicing in his new- 
found relation to Christ; he has turned his back on the 
world, the flesh, and the Devil ; he is seeking to cultivate 
the spiritual inclinations that have now seemingly taken 
possession of his life and made the world a new world 
to him ; he is full of exultation and delight that the old 
way of sin is gone forever, that henceforth the pathway 
to the City of God will be a pathway of perfect peace, 
when, suddenly, he is confronted with the stubborn fact 
that the old forces of sin and fleshly inclinations are in 
him quite as strong if not stronger than ever; he finds 
a sudden paralysis in his spiritual tendencies and as a 
consequence is amazed, distressed and discouraged. In- 
deed, it is here that the departure of multitudes of Chris- 
tians begins into that half-and-half life for Christ, the 
going off more and more from Him and the profession 
they made of His name, and justifying themselves in 
the fact that they have found that they are still in the old 
bonds, have been tempted and fallen, and therefore have 
,no longer any sense of confidence or hope in the Christian 
career; justifying themselves still further perhaps with 



in 



ii2 THE TWO NATURES. 

the conclusion that it was all a mistake, that no doubt 
they never were converted, if, really, there be such a 
thing as conversion. 

Now, if they had been taught at the outset that the 
moment they were brought to know the Lord Jesus 
Christ a new, distinct spiritual nature was com- 
municated to them, and that the old nature of the flesh 
remained waiting for its occasion under the suggestion 
of the Devil to throw itself in their pathway, tempt them, 
and cast them down; if they had known that while it is 
not possible to get rid of this "old man" till death or the 
Coming of the Lord, yet that it is possible to starve 
the flesh, keep it under and fight the good fight of faith 
to a finish of victory for God- and man ; if they had known 
that this uprising of the flesh is in the very nature of re- 
generation, that the coming in of Christ into the soul 
stirs up sooner or later all the enmity of the flesh and 
that it does not take God unawares ; if they had known 
that the manifestation of the old nature in them was not 
a witness that they had never been made partakers of 
Christ but, on the contrary, was an evidence that this 
new nature of Christ was there, and like Christ Himself 
in the wilderness was now to be put to the proof by the 
Devil through the weakness of the flesh; if they had 
known all this and had been clearly taught how to deal 
with this dual condition in them, how to starve the old 
nature and feed the new and thus come forth a trium- 
phant son of God; I repeat that if they had known all 
this they would have been spared the disappointment 
and humiliation of their Christian profession. 

There can be no question that if Christians to-day 
comprehended the fact and truth about the existence and 
interplay of the nature bequeathed to them by Adam 



THE TWO NATURES. 113 

through generation, and the nature bequeathed to them 
by the Son of God through regeneration, we should find 
less numerous that class of religious persons known as 
"back-sliders," and see a more intelligent and stalwart 
following of the Christ of God. 

It is of the last importance then that the Christian 
should know the doctrine of the heretofore inexplicable 
facts in him. 

It is to that end this Bible lesson is given. 

The teaching of the Scriptures is clear and unmistak- 
able. 

1. There is a nature of the flesh. 

"Among whom also we all had our conversation in 
times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of 
the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature (this nature 
of the flesh) the children of wrath, even as others." 
Ephesians ii: 3. 

2. This nature comes in by birth. 

"That which is born of the flesh is flesh." John iii : 6 ; 
Ephesians iv: 22. 

This is the nature originally born in us, or rather this 
is the nature of our first birth. 

3. This nature is called the "Old man." Romans vi: 
6; Ephesians iv: 22. 

4. Called "The Natural man." "But the natural man 
receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God." I Cor- 
inthians ii: 14. 

5. It is enmity against God. "Because the carnal mind 
(the nature of the flesh) is enmity against God." Romans 
viii: 7. 

6. There is no good thing in it. "For I know that in 
me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing." Ro- 
mans vii: 18. 



H4 THE TWO NATURES. 

"The heart (that is the nature of the flesh) is deceitful 
above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know 
it?" Jeremiah xvii : 9. 

And the conclusion is, that God only has fathomed its 
depths. 

"For out of the heart (nature of flesh) proceed evil 
thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false 
witness, blasphemies." Matthew xv: 19. 

"What the law could not do, in that it was weak 
through the flesh." Romans viii: 3. 

That is to say, not that the law in itself was weak, for 
the law is holy and good, but that the flesh is weak; it 
has no strength to meet the demands of the law for 
righteousness. 

7. The nature of the flesh cannot be changed. 

"It is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed 
can be." Romans viii: 7. 

"Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard 
his spots? Then may ye also do good, that are accus- 
tomed to do evil." Jeremiah xiii: 23. 

8. God has pronounced sentence of death against it. 
"And God said unto Noah, the end of all flesh is come 

before me." Genesis vi: 13. 

"In Adam all die." I Cor. xv: 22. 

"By nature (this nature of flesh) the children of wrath." 
Ephesians ii: 3. 

9. There is a nature of Spirit. 

"That which is born of the Spirit is Spirit." John 
iii: 6. 

As that which is born is a nature of things, so that 
which is born ek ton pneumatos, out of the Spirit, is a 
nature of spirit. 

10. This nature of Spirit is called "Christ in you." 



THE TWO NATURES. 115 

"To whom God would make known what is the riches 
of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles ; which is 
Christ in you, the hope of glory." Colossians, 1 : 27. 

11. This nature is called "Life." 

"He that hath the Son (Christ in you) hath Life." I 
John v: 11, 12. 

12. This nature of Spirit is received by and through 
faith in the promises, the written promises of God. 

"Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and 
precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers 
of the divine nature (the nature of the Spirit) having es- 
caped the corruption that is in the world through lust." 
II Peter i: 3, 4. 

13. This divine nature, this Christ nature, this nature 
of Spirit, is wrought in the believer through the Holy 
Spirit and the written Word. 

The Holy Spirit is the Divine Agent and Infinite Ef- 
ficiency. 

The written Word is the Perfect Instrument in the 
hands of the Spirit. 

"Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he 
cannot enter into the kingdom of God." John iii: 5. 

We have a direct Scripture in which water is set forth 
as the symbol of the Word. Ephesians v: 26. "The 
washing of water by the Word." In John xv: 3, our 
Lord says : "Ye are clean through the Word which I 
have spoken unto you." In Proverbs xxv: 25, it is writ- 
ten: "As cold waters to a thirsty soul, so is Good News 
(The Gospel, the Word of God) from a far country (from 
Heaven, the source of the Word)." 

Whenever the Spirit is mentioned in connection with 
water it signifies the Spirit in operation with the Word; 
it signifies the Word used by the Spirit as His Instru- 
ment. 



n6 THE TWO NATURES. 

To be born therefore of water and Spirit, literally out 
of water and out of Spirit, is the New Testament way of 
saying that the Spirit is the Agent, and the Word the 
Instrument in this new birth of a human soul. 

"Not by works of righteousness which we have done, 
but according to his mercy He saved us, by the washing 
of regeneration (by the washing of the Word) and re- 
newing of the Holy Ghost." Titus iii: 5. 

"Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the 
Truth Through THE Spirit." "Being born again, not 
of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the Word of 
God." I Peter i: 22, 23. 

"It is the Spirit that quickeneth: the flesh profiteth 
nothing ; the words I speak unto you, they are Spirit, and 
they are Life." John vi: 63. 

Here, then, from headquarters we have the statement 
that His Words are very spirit and life; that His Word 
and Spirit are Instrument and Agent in the immense 
work of creating a new nature for the believer. 

14. These two natures of flesh and Spirit dwell side by 
side in each believer. 

"He that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap cor- 
ruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the 
Spirit reap life everlasting." Galatians vi: 7, 8. 

The man whom the Apostle is here addressing is a 
Christian man; and in thus suggesting to him that he 
may sow either to flesh or Spirit, and as the sowing must 
necessarily be to himself, the Apostle demonstrates that 
this Christian man possesses in himself, and side by side, 
the two natures of flesh and Spirit. 

15. The flesh is constantly fighting against the Spirit. 
"For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth 

no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how 
to perform that which is good I find not." 



THE TWO NATURES. 117 

"For the good that I would, I do not: but the evil 
which I would not, that I do." 

"Now, if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do 
it, but sin that dwelleth in me." 

"I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is 
present with me." 

"For I delight in the law of God after the inward man." 

"But I see another law in my members, warring 
against the law of my mind, and bringing me into cap- 
tivity to the law of sin which is in my members." Ro- 
mans vii: 18-23. 

In this remarkable passage the Apostle speaks of the 
"inward man" who delights in the law of God, and of the 
flesh which delights in sin and the violation of the law. 

This inward man is none other than that new nature 
born of the Spirit ; and the wretchedness which leads the 
Apostle to cry out in v: 24, "O, wretched man that I 
am," is the result of an unceasing assault against every 
endeavor of the new man to live in the way of righteous- 
ness and truth. 

In other words, the Apostle represents himself as one 
who at one moment is led by a power to seek after God 
and all His ways, and at another is carried off his feet 
by the sweep of a power for evil that he is just beginning 
to comprehend as having its headquarters and resource 
in himself. 

His experience is that in varying degree of the aver- 
age Christian, sinning and repenting; anxious to do the 
will of God, and in a measure doing it till, alas, in an 
unexpected moment some sudden surge of that old 
nature of sin proves stronger in its impetus than all the 
desires of the Spirit; and the end of his good resolves 
finds him going, like the dumb beast driven, after all the 
ways of evil. 



n8 TWO TWO NATURES. 

And it is here that the discouragement and often the 
disaster of Christian lives begin, this first awakening to 
the fact that in spite of regeneration, in spite of the new- 
creation of the Spirit, in spite of the fact of Christ in 
them the hope of glory, and the promised strength of 
God, they are still sinful, still pervaded by sinful im- 
pulses; and worse than all, that this inclination to sin 
seems all the stronger for even the slight endeavor to do 
the will of God and Christ. 

Sad and bitter as may be the awakening to the fact, 
it is a fact; it is a fact that the old nature of sin abides, 
and has not been changed. Nay, it is all the more virulent 
because the coming-in of the Christ nature is the chal- 
lenge to it. Not until we are regenerated, not until the 
breath of Heaven comes into our souls and we get the 
light of the revelation of the Divine will do we begin to 
know the depths of the flesh and its power for sin. 

There are Christians who have been dumbfounded to 
discover in themselves tendencies which they never knew 
till they had turned unto the Lord. 

It ought not to be a surprise. Until that moment 
when the new nature comes in the body has been the 
stronghold of sin. 

Now there is a new tenant in the soul, none other than 
the heaven-born sonship of God; and this new life stirs 
and inspires all the bitterness of the old. 

Nor need there be any illusion, the old nature will 
never cease in its assaults on the child of God thus com- 
mitted to the soul. Just as all the forces of earth and 
hell began moving against the first Son of God so soon 
as He came into the world and continued their assaults 
to the end, so now that He is wrought once more in 
earth, but this time in the soul of him who believes, these 



THE TWO NATURES. 119 

same earth and hell forces will arise with renewed en- 
deavor to slay and kill, and so continue that endeavor to 
the end. 

16. If the flesh is against the Spirit, the Spirit is equal- 
ly against the flesh. 

And in this is the Christian's light and hope. 

"For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit 
against the flesh; and these are contrary the one to the 
other; so that ye cannot do the thing that ye would." 
Galatians v: 17. 

Instead of "ye cannot do the things ye would," the 
better rendering is, "ye may not do the things ye would." 

That is to say, the Spirit is here shown to be on the 
aggressive, and resisting the power of inbred sin delivers 
the Christian from the surrender to its claims. 

But this deliverance requires the active participation 
of the believer himself. In the seventh of Romans we 
behold the Christian under the domination of the flesh, 
sentimentally in favor of the good, but actually the yield- 
ing bond slave of the evil: so far as the good goes only 
"wretched" in his helplessness to get beyond anything 
better than mere sentiment. But in the fifth of Galatians 
the Apostle recognizes that the new man has asserted his 
claims to the Christian and is holding back the motions 
of the flesh as an invitation to that Christian to be en- 
couraged and walk in the Spirit in surrender to Him, 
with the assurance that in so yielding the Spirit will 
bring him victory. 

Evidently then there is an instruction needed as to the 
believer's relation to this new life in him. He needs to 
know how to deal with it, how to take care of it, and so 
set it in the line of its ordination that it may be the rein- 
forcement of Heaven to the believing soul. 



126 THE TWO NATURES. 

Just as the natural man is sustained by the food that 
is given to him, and the individual is responsible to see 
that the food is given, so is it true that the new nature 
must be fed and sustained by the food proper to its 
nourishment. 

This leads to note, then, that: 

17. The new nature, when it first comes into the be- 
liever, is only as a babe. 

"Wherefore, laying aside all malice, and all guile and 
hypocrisies and envies, and all evil speakings, as new- 
born babes, desire the sincere milk of the Word." I 
Peter ii: 1, 2. 

The Christian is here at the beginning of his profession 
of Christ to take the attitude of a new-born babe; and 
that is simply saying that the new nature of Spirit in him 
is as a babe; it is a new life, and, relatively to the old life, 
as a weak infant needing nourishment. 

Christ the Lord came into the world and lay upon a 
human breast as an infant, so is it true that He comes 
now at the outset to lay as an infant in the breasts of those 
who claim His name. Let no Christian be surprised, 
then, nor imagine that there is any failure in the relation 
of God to his soul if at the outset he discovers that the 
old nature seems the stronger in him. It is so in this, 
that it is identified with his very body, and with a world 
which is under the rule of sin; while the new nature, like 
Christ, finds the body as an inn filled and crowded with 
the clients of the flesh. Only by the miracle of God was 
Christ introduced into the world; by a miracle is Christ 
wrought in any man to-day ; and as first He seemed to be 
the revelation of goodness, but of weakness, so is it now. 
Christ the Lord must needs grow in stature, wisdom 
and favor with men, and He must grow in the soul that 
receives Him. 



THE TWO NATURES. \2\ 

Thus it is true that at the beginning of the Christian's 
heavenward life the Christ nature in him is as a babe. 

18. This new nature can be sustained and made to 
grow in us only by feeding on the Word of God. 

"As new-born babes desire the sincere milk of the 
Word, that ye may grow thereby." I Peter ii: i, 3. 

"Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and thy 
word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart." 
Jeremiah xv : 16. 

The best merely human literature that was ever writ- 
ten will not feed the new nature. You may bring the 
noblest thoughts which ever sprung from a human mind, 
you may couch them in the most fragrant rhetoric that 
ever distilled the perfume of literature in the book lover's 
nostrils and you will not quicken a single pulse in the 
new and spiritual life of the soul. Shakespeare may 
analyze, Milton soar, Bacon lead us step by step up the 
royal stairway of induction to the throne of logic, yet not 
a gleam of light or pulse of strength will be added to the 
Christ within. 

There is only one food for the Son of God, and that is 
the Word. It is the declaration of the supreme Son of 
God, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every 
word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God ;" and in 
this He was Himself but quoting from the Word of God 
in Deuteronomy viii : 3. 

How did this son of God conduct Himself in that 
moment of moments when on the mount of temptation 
He was assaulted by Satan? The answer is that He con- 
tinually responded to every subtlety of the Adversary by, 
"It is written." 

He refused to take Himself out of the hands of His 
Father, and made the Word of His God His meat and 



122 THE TWO NATURES. 

drink day and night ; indeed, if it be examined it will be 
found that all His speech, all His discourses o.n earth 
were simply the quotation or amplification of the words 
of the Old Testament, and that His last words in the 
hour of His agony were the words long ago written of 
God in the Psalms. 

In His prayer, He said to the Father concerning His 
disciples, "I have given unto them the words which Thou 
gavest me." John xvii: 8. 

It is the Word that reveals the mind and will of God 
to the sons of God, gives them light and furnishes them 
with the strength needed by the way. He therefore 
who would be filled with the will of God, walk in the 
light, and have strength to meet the assaults of Satan, 
must be filled with the Word. 

You would not expect to have strength to meet the 
duties of daily life, naturally speaking, if you did not 
regularly feed and sustain the body; no more can you 
expect that the spiritual nature in you will have strength 
to meet its opportunities and responsibilities if you do 
not sustain it with the food needed by it. 

Nor will it do to feed this new nature irregularly and 
at haphazard. It must be fed just as regularly and care- 
fully as one would feed his natural life. 

And here may be found the secret why multitudes of 
Christians have no power to overcome temptation, no 
power to walk on in the way of their professed disciple- 
ship. They do not give the spiritual life in them any 
food; they starve it; many of them are living on past 
experiences, on remembered emotions when they were 
first brought to know the Lord. They would deem 
themselves guilty of unpardonable folly if they neg- 
lected day after day to sit down at the well-spread board 



THE TWO NATURES. 123 

and there sought to meet nature's demands; and yet, 
there are Christians who scarcely ever pretend to look 
at the Word of God. The newspaper with its daily 
record of the flesh, and fleshly suggestions ; the light and 
unreal story, or some speculation of limited reason con- 
cerning the contradictions of things in the Word of God; 
some so-called liberal novel glorifying unbelief and sell- 
ing by thousands because it writes on the epitaph of its 
hero the declaration that he is going somewhere and he 
does not know where, whether North, South, East or 
West, and is not afraid. Is it any wonder that with the 
spiritual nature thus starved, cut off from its only 
nourishment and support that it should seem to be weak, 
or that the Christian should not have a very lusty con- 
cept of his sonship with God, or his responsibility as such 
to the world about him? 

Let it be remembered then that the written Word is 
the only food by which the new nature can be nourished 
and made strong to do the will of God in the Christian. 

19. While these two natures, the Flesh and the Spirit, 
are in the Believer, the Believer himself has but one 
responsibility; he is but one and the same person. 

"For the good that I would, I do not; but the evil 
which I would not, that I do." Romans vii: 19. 

Here you have the same personality whether for good 
or for evil; the one responsibility whether for sin or for 
righteousness. 

"That ye put off concerning the former conversation 
the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful 
lusts: 

And be ye renewed in the spirit of your mind : 

And that ye put on the new man, which after God is 
created in righteousness and true holiness." Ephesians 
iv: 22, 24, 



I2 4 THB TWO NATURES. 

The Apostle recognizes the "Old Man," and "The 
New Man," but admits only one responsibility. It is the 
responsibility of the regenerated man to "put off" and 
"put on." 

While the Word makes clear enough the existence of 
two distinct natures in the Christian it allows him no op- 
portunity to throw the failure of his life on the possession 
of a nature adverse to the new. Wherefore says the 
Apostle: "Let not sin reign in your mortal body, that 
ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. Neither yield ye 
your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto 
sin; but yield yourselves unto God as those who are alive 
from the dead, and your members as instruments of 
righteousness unto God." Roamns vi: 13. 

The divine law is: "To whom ye yield yourselves ser- 
vants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey." 
Romans vi: 16. 

20. The responsibility of the believer in relation to the 
flesh is five-fold. 

1. He must never attempt to improve, or make a fair 
show of it. "For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) 
dwelleth no good thing." Romans vii: 18. 

Paul's conflict in the seventh of the Romans comes 
from the fact, not that he sought to turn his back on sin 
and iniquity but rather because he sought to lift up the 
flesh and force it to meet the demands of God's righteous 
law ; he had not seen the depths of the flesh ; in spite of 
the fact that he was a regenerated man he still had hopes 
of it. 

There are many Christians who are priding themselves 
on their native honor and integrity; no doubt many 
Christians serve the Lord in the pride and confidence of 
their flesh, but the word of God testifies that "all our 



THE TWO NATURES. 125 

righteousnesses are as filthy rags." Isaiah lxiv: 6. We 
are therefore to turn away from the natural good in us 
as well as the evil. 

We are to take God's estimate of it, believe with the 
Son of God that "it profiteth nothing," and own that our 
only confidence is Christ ("in us the hope of glory"). 

2. We are to starve the flesh. 

"Make not provision for the flesh, to fulfill the lusts 
thereof." Romans xiii: 14. 

Do not seek some dainty bit to spice the appetite of the 
flesh; do not deceive yourself into the folly that if you 
can only get something refined and cultured, something 
that appeals to the best in you you can still feed the flesh 
and do no harm to your spiritual nature; that you can 
ameliorate and soften the old nature so that it will not 
assault the new. 

The story of the tiger is the illustration of that fallacy. 
So long as the tiger was nearly starved to death, so long 
as it caught no smell, or sight, or taste of blood, it 
seemed very feeble and sufficiently docile; but that fatal 
day when it got but for a moment the taste of blood as it 
abraided with its tongue the master's hand while fawning 
upon him, that instant all the jungle nature was aroused, 
inflamed; the sudden blazing of the eyes, the quick 
switching of the tail, the curved back, and the gathering 
together for a spring at the very object upon which but 
a moment before it had fawned, told the story of the un- 
changeableness of the tiger nature; we know the sequel, 
only when the master recognized that the tiger was tiger 
still did he escape from its treachery and assault. 

You may starve your old nature and reduce it to a 
minimum of manifestation, but the fatal moment you 
attempt to feed it, to pamper it, give it the blood taste of 



126 THE TWO NATURES. 

the world, no matter how blue or refined that blood is, 
no matter though it come from the hand of sestheticism 
itself, it will be alive and crouching, tiger-like, for a 
spring against the upper and spiritual life in your soul. 

Do not cheat yourself with the idea that because you 
are a Christian and have been linked up with the Risen 
Man and have been living with Him in heavenly places 
far above the cries and claims of the flesh, that it has 
no longer the same tastes, the same cravings ; nay, there 
have been Christians who have lived the most conse- 
crated of lives, have seemed to be above all power of the 
flesh, and have so said and testified, believing it them- 
selves with all sincerity who in an unguarded moment 
have yielded to some apparently harmless appetite of the 
old nature; and lo, desires which they believed forever 
dead have come upon them with all the rush of a flood 
against which they had no ready power of resistance. 

There is only one way to get rid of the old nature, and 
that is, to starve it; you cannot kill it (actually), but you 
can starve it; you can never make it live in heavenly 
places, but you can live in heavenly places above it. 

3. We are to own it as dead (judicially). 

"Knowing this that our old man is crucified with Him 
that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth 
we should not serve sin." Romans vi: 6. 

The moment of faith in Christ as our sacrifice He is 
(accepted as our substitute and God looks upon us just 
as though we actually had been crucified with Him; 
wherefore, says the Apostle : "I am (Greek, I was) cruci- 
fied with Christ." Galatians ii: 20. 

Thus in God's sight we are indeed judicially dead. He 
sees us crucified in the old nature and dead to our crea- 
tion standing in the old man, the old Adam. 



THE TWO NATURES. 127 

It is for us then to put God's estimate upon ourselves, 
see ourselves judged and dead in relation to the old 
nature, and own it as such before God. 

But we are to own it dead for the good as well as bad. 

A dead man is as inactive for good as for evil. Hence 
we are not even to cultivate the good in our old nature, 
we are not to rely upon any native righteousness in it, 
but own it as belonging to the dead in God's sight, and 
own ourselves as alive only in Christ; own that our only 
hope of life before God is in the new nature in us, and 
walk in that new nature in the power and energy of the 
Holy Spirit, through faith. In other words, be done 
with all expectation of the flesh, as you would be done 
with all expectation of a dead man buried out of your 
sight. 

4. We are to mortify the flesh. 

"Mortify, therefore, your members which are upon the 
earth." Colossians iii: 5. 

Mortify, that is put to death the members that serve 
the nature of the flesh. This is simply saying that we 
are to treat this body as dead to the service of the old 
nature. 

Just as you would recognize that the body of the dead 
man could no longer serve his will, his desires, so recog- 
nize that the membership of our body which has been 
under the domination of the flesh can no longer yield 
itself to the old nature. God looks upon that old nature 
as dead. Let us therefore show that we have made 
God's estimate practical in its application by our faith; 
that henceforth the membership of our body considered 
in relation to the old nature is as though it were also 
dead. And this is the logic of our standing before God. 
Says the Apostle: "How shall we that are dead to sin 



128 THE TWO NATURES. 

(remember, he does not say that sin is dead in us) live 
any longer therein ?" Romans vi : 2. As he shows in 
the following verses of the same chapter Believers' bap- 
tism is a protest against any such endeavor. In the 
fourth verse he tells us that "we are buried with Him by 
baptism into death; that like as Christ was raised up 
from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we 
also should walk in the newness (literally, the new 
species,) of life." Romans vi: 4. 

The first thing to do with the dead is to bury them; 
hence baptism is a confession that just as we are buried 
beneath the water, so are we dead and buried in relation 
to that flesh which is here styled sin. If then, we have 
made this profession how can we in anywise attempt 
to serve that old nature? 

Nay, in all the future history of our earthly lives we 
are to keep it in the place of death- 
Only in proportion as we thus practically own it dead 
shall we be delivered from it. 

5. We are to put it off. 

"That ye put off concerning the former conversation 
the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful 
lusts." Ephesians iv: 22. 

The old nature is considered as a garment to be laid 
aside, a habit to be put off. You have the same word 
"put off," rendered "laid down," in Acts vii: 58, where 
at the stoning of Stephen, "the witnesses laid down their 
clothes at a young man's feet, whose name was Saul." 
Put off, laid down, renounced as clothes we no longer 
intend to wear, a cast-off garment, that is the light in 
which we are to consider the old nature. 

21. Our responsibility to the Spirit nature in us is 
five-fold: 



THE TWO NATURES. 129 

I. We are to own ourselves as alive in the Spirit. 

"If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit." 
Galatians v: 25. "Likewise reckon ye also yourselves 
to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through 
Jesus Christ our Lord." Romans vi: 11. 

Not "through," but "in" Christ. Just as much as we 
own ourselves by faith to have been in Christ for death 
on the cross, we are to own ourselves as in Christ 
risen from the dead for life. .This is our very stand- 
ing before God. He "hath raised us up together (with 
Christ), and made us sit together in heavenly places in 
Christ Jesus." Ephesians ii: 6. Wherefore says the 
Apostle: "If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those 
things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right 
hand of God. For ye are dead (died), and your life is 
hid with Christ in God." Colossians iii: 1, 3. 

By faith, in the energy of the Holy Spirit, we are to 
live as those who have been linked up to "the Man in 
glory." 

We are to live as though we had no other source of 
life than His; as though in Him we had actually been 
translated to heaven in our glorified bodies, finding 
therefore in Heaven and Heavenly things our only joy, 
our only environment. 

2. We are to put on the new man. 

"Put on the new man, which after God is created in 
righteousness and true holiness." Ephesians iv: 24. 

Correspondingly as we put off the old man, we are to 
put on the new; we are to put on Christ Himself as a 
new garment, as a robe of righteousness and truth. 
"Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not pro- 
vision for the flesh, to fulfill the lusts thereof." Romans 
xiii: 14. 



i 3 o THE TWO NATURES. 

3. Walk in the new nature of the Spirit. 

"Let us also walk in the Spirit." Galatians v: 25. 

4. Feed it with the Word of God. 

"As new-born babes, desire the sincere milk of the 
Word." I Peter ii: 2. 

5. Depend on the energy of the indwelling Holy 
Spirit. 

"Now unto Him that is able to do exceeding abun- 
dantly above all that we ask or think, according to the 
power that worketh in us." Ephesians iii : 20. 

The Holy Spirit is in the believer the all-sufficient 
power on which to rely for a heavenward walk in the 
new nature. 

If the Christian walk was conditioned upon our indi- 
vidual strength it is evident that we might be hopeless, 
even with the communicated nature of Christ to suggest 
the way; but the Holy Spirit has come to take up His 
abode in us in order that we may be fully equipped. The 
measure of our responsibility is in relation to the opera- 
tion of the Spirit in us. The Spirit is here to enable us 
to receive all that God would do for us and to furnish 
us with all the strength and power required, but He can- 
not work if we are determined to resist Him; there is 
nothing in all the universe so sensitive as the Spirit; He 
can be grieved by the slightest disobedience or resist- 
ance. Let it be stamped deep then in the Christian con- 
sciousness that as Christians we are fully equipped to 
live the Christian life in all its fairest outlines, but that 
the value of the equipment depends upon the use we 
make of it. 

A man may have a hundred thousand dollars at his 
command, but if he uses only a thousand he is no 
better off as to the value of the money than if he had but 
the thousand. 



THE TWO NATURES. 131 

The Holy Ghost is in us with all the equipment of 
power and gifts necessary to enable us to walk the 
noblest and most Son-like life with God; we have all the 
resources necessary to the most imperial of victories; 
we have all the wealth of spiritual inheritance to make us 
richer than those who have the gold of kings, but if with 
all this Divine endowment we do not use it, how are we 
better off in all the practical values of life than those 
who do not possess the Spirit? 

The whole issue of our triumph or defeat then turns 
on the relation we sustain to the Spirit indwelling us. 
He will work according to our surrender to Him. 

2.2. There are six things to be remembered about the 
Two Natures: 

1. We will not get rid of the nature of the flesh till 
death, or the Coming of Christ. 

Make no mistake upon this point; allow no false con- 
cept that by cultivating the Old Nature you can get rid 
of it, or that by seeking to give it right food you can 
nourish it in such fashion that it will in the long run turn 
into Spirit. Let the affirmation of the Son of God ring 
in your ears: "That which is born of the flesh, is flesh; 
and that which is born of the Spirit, is Spirit. 

2. The food that sustains one nature will starve the 
other. 

Shakespeare and Shelley will not feed the new nature, 
nor will the Old and the New Testament feed the flesh. 

The Spirit would starve on Shakespeare, and the flesh 
would grow very faint on the Old Testament. Mere 
literature for the flesh, the pure Word for the Spirit. 

3. You cannot feed both natures at the same time. 
The mind is the channel by which the food is to be 

taken, and the mind can receive only one class of thought 



132 THE TWO NATURES. 

food at a time; the truth is that it is impossible to be 
taken up with flesh and Spirit at the same moment. One 
or the other must have the precedence; hence, it is im- 
possible to feed both at the same time. 

4. Dead as the flesh is judicially, and dead as you may 
have kept it practically, you can always quicken it into 
activity by putting yourself under the law. 

The law is meant for a man in the flesh and never for 
a man in Christ, never for the one who is seated with 
Christ in Heavenly places. Consequently, the moment 
a Christian comes down from those exalted heights 
where we walk in grace and faith to the low level of sight 
and merit, he stirs up the flesh to all its baleful activity 
whether of self-righteousness or concupiscence. 

Never be absurd enough to come down from the resur- 
rection heights and the intercession of the priest after 
the order of Melchizedek, to the level of natural life and 
the priesthood of Aaron; to do so is, as the Apostle 
clearly shows, to "fall from grace." "Christ is become of 
no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the 
law; ye are fallen from grace." Galatians v: 4. 

5. You can always sow to the flesh even as others 
who have not the Spirit and like them you can reap cor- 
ruption. Galatians vi: 7, 8. 

6. There is a definite way in which to deal with the 
old nature, the flesh. 

Deny its claims for life; deny its claims for righteous- 
ness as well as unrighteousness ; yield to the Holy Spirit ; 
feed the new nature and walk in entire and dependent 
faith on that God who has saved us and called us with 
an holy calling. 



THE SO-CALLED LORD'S PRAYER. 



Cbe So-called " Cord's Prayer/* 



One of His disciples said unto Him, Lord, tecch us to 
pray, as Jo/in also (aught his disciples. — Luke xi: i. 



In Matthew vi: 9-13, the following prayer is recorded: 

"Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be Thy 
name. 

Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it 
is in heaven. 

Give us this day our daily bread. 

And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. 

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from 
evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the 
glory, forever. Amen." 

This prayer is popularly known as the Lord's Prayer. 
Like many other popular views of Scripture it is wrong. 
The Lord's prayer correctly speaking is the great 
prayer which the Lord Himself offers, as found in John 
xvii. 

The prayer noted above is the disciples' prayer. The 
prayer which the Lord upon the insistence of the dis- 
ciples taught them to pray. 

This prayer is so wrought into the general service of 
the Christian church, so made use of on public and 
private occasions, and thought to be so pre-eminently an 
expression of Christian faith and devotion, that it is im- 
possible to touch it or put it out of its accepted place 
without offending the common consensus concerning it: 
and yet it does not belong to the church, it is not for the 
Christian at all; and the reasons ought to be self-evident. 

1. The prayer for the kingdom is not the prayer, and 

135 



136 THE LORD'S PRAYER. 

does not express the attitude of the church. The prayer 
of the church in unison with that of the Spirit is set 
forth in Revelation xxii: 17, "And the Spirit and the 
Bride say, Come." 

The prayer of the church is not for the coming of the 
kingdom, but for the coming of the Bridegroom, that the 
marriage may take place and the Queen be ready to ac- 
company the King when He shall descend in the splen- 
dor of the kingdom. 

The attitude of the church is not looking for the King 
but waiting for the Son : not looking for signs but listen- 
ing for sounds, the sounds of His voice and the trump 
which shall summon her to meet Him ; not crying out for 
the manifestation on earth, but yearning to be caught 
up into the air; not clamoring for revealed power but 
pleading for ascension into the banqueting house, and 
over her His banner of love. 

2. The ground of the prayer is Law, and not Grace. 

Nothing could be more legal than this: 

"And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. 

For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly 
Father will also forgive you. 

But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will 
your Father forgive your trespasses." vv: 12, 14, 15. 

According to Romans vi: 14, and in the very nature 
of the case, the Christian is not under law; to put him- 
self even in the atmosphere of legality is to deny grace 
and to fall from it. 

The assertion that the Father makes forgiveness for 
ourselves dependent upon our forgiveness of others is, 
if accepted, working for absolution and under con- 
straint of rule, authority, law. Whether therefore from 
Sinai or the mount of Beatitudes it is law, and the 



THE LORD'S PRAYER. 137 

ground is the very opposite of grace, the opposite of all 
that constitutes essential Christian characteristic. 

So long as grace and legalism are distinct and opposed 
to each other the Christian cannot consistently offer this 
prayer. 

3. If this prayer is admitted by the Christian, it is 
equivalent to saying that his standing before God de- 
pends not on his relation to Christ but on his relation 
to his fellow-men, and that a failure to be perfect in these 
relations will make him imperfect before God. 

For the Christian to present this prayer is to take him- 
self off the ground of the immutable covenant of grace, 
and put himself on the shifting sand of his own weak, 
vacillating temperament. 

To offer this prayer is to deny both the ground and the 
certainty of his standing. 

4. The Christian is not called upon to pray for for- 
giveness. 

There is no warrant in Scripture for the Christian to 
take such a position. If a Christian sin, and sin is tres- 
pass, there is one clear and definite thing for him to do, 
and that is, go to confession. Go to his Father in 
heaven and confess it; and the moment he confesses it 
Jesus Christ as his High Priestly Advocate will sustain his 
confession and advocate his forgiveness and cleansing by 
bringing before the Father the memorial of the cross and 
its sacrificial blood, and testifying to the Father that 
when He shed that blood He had anticipated this very 
failure and sin; and on the ground of that perfect sacri- 
fice, the Father, because He is faithful and just, will for- 
give his erring, but repentant child. I John ii: 1. I 
John 1: 9. 

As Christians, if the Spirit of Christ is in us, we will 



138 THE LORD'S PRAYER. 

forgive those who have sinned against us; it should go 
without saying that the Christian who is in the plenitude 
of the Spirit will not do otherwise; nevertheless, what- 
ever else may be the consequences there can be no such 
thing as that he will remain unforgiven of God on the 
ground of his failure towards men; the immense issues, 
of the Father's mercy cannot rest on such varying 
foundation as that for the church. 

5. This prayer belongs to a time when the church 
will be gone from the earth and when Antichrist is in 
power. 

It will be the prayer of the elect Jewish remnant in 
the day of the Great Tribulation. Here is the explana- 
tion of v: 10. 

"Thy kingdom come." 

At the moment of this utterance the kingdom of Anti- 
christ or the man known in Scripture as "The Wild 
Beast" will be over all Europe and in Palestine; and 
these Jews called out after the Translation of the church 
by the gospel of the kingdom will lift up their voices and 
pray that the kingdom of the Father, which is the king- 
dom of the Messiah, may come and deliver them from 
the tribulation and woe that will then be rampant. 

According to Daniel xi : 36, and II Thessalonians ii : 3, 
4, this "Man of the earth" is known as "The Wilful 
King," the king whose will is absolute law; hence, the 
remnant lift up their voices and cry, "Thy kingdom 
come, Thy will be done on earth." They pray that the 
earth may become a province of heaven and of God and 
no longer the arena for the sin and wilfulness of this 
"Man of Sin." 

In verse 1 1 we read : 

"Give us this day our daily bread." 



THE LORD'S PRAYER 139 

It is beautiful to be dependent on God for the very 
bread we eat, but beautiful as it is we are also expected 
to earn it in the sweat of our brow. In the time, how- 
ever, to which this prayer refers, to earn bread or even 
buy it will be a dangerous thing ; for in that day every- 
thing, bread as well, will be made and sold only with the 
mark of Antichrist upon it. Not a loaf of bread not an 
article of food can be got in the shops or made or found 
in the houses without this name, as it is written: 

"And no man might buy or sell save he that had the 
mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his 
name." Revelation xiii: 17. 

Now, the man who refuses to receive or own the mark 
of the beast will be slain by him, but he who does accept 
the mark of the beast will be cast into the lake of fire. 

It will be death at the hands of Antichrist to take any 
food without his mark on it. It will be the lake of fire 
to those who seek to save their lives by taking it. On 
the one side is violent death, on the other is a burning 
hell. 

What can the disciples of Christ do? 

It is in this hour of perplexity that the prophetic rem- 
nant lift up the prayer: "Give us this day our daily 
bread." 

God must step in and by His Providence sustain them 
as He sustained Elijah in the days of Ahab, both being 
respectively the types of the Remnant and the Antichrist. 

"Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from 
evil." v: 13. 

The word "Temptation" is the same word used in 
Revelation iii: 10, "I will keep thee from (out of) the 
hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world 
to try them." 



140 THE LORD'S PRAYER. 

This latter passage has reference to The Great Tribu- 
lation of which our Lord speaks in Matthew 24, and 
which Jeremiah the prophet calls the "Day of Jacob's 
Trouble." The word "Temptation" in the prayer there- 
fore refers to that moment, and the petition in the prayer 
is the pleading of the disciples that the Lord will not 
allow them to pass through this terrible and awful time, 
but afford them a way of escape. 

Our Lord Himself declares in advance that this prayer 
in measure shall be heard, and for the elect's sake 
these monstrous days will be shortened. Matthew 
xxiv: 22. 

The word translated "Evil" should be rendered with 
the article, "The Evil One," and signifies him of whom 
the Apostle Paul speaks as "The Wicked One," he who 
is the Antichrist. 

The disciples therefore are praying that the Lord will 
surely and finally deliver them from the hands of this 
man who maketh the earth to tremble and who draweth 
the trail of the Serpent after him whithersoever he goes. 

Such is the full and prophetic meaning of this prayer. 

A prayer that has no more place in the Christian 
church than the thunders of Sinai, or the offerings of 
Leviticus, 



SPIRITUAL GROWTH. 



Spiritual flrowft. 



Mark iv: 26-32. 

The seed is a grain of corn. 

The first grain of corn is the Lord Jesus Christ. 

The sowing in the earth is the death and burial of the 
Lord as He says : ''Except a corn of wheat fall into the 
ground and die, it abideth alone." 

The blade that rises from the seed is the Lord Him- 
self rising from the dead. 

The ear of corn is the church made up of grains that 
have sprung out of the death of the Lord Jesus. 

The grains of corn in the ear are the individual Chris- 
tians, each one of them a multiplication and a duplica- 
tion of the Lord Jesus Christ, the First Grain. 

The full corn in the ear is the hour of ripening, the 
hour when the church shall be complete. 

The harvest is the end of the age, the end of this dis- 
pensation. 

The man with the sickle is the Lord Jesus Christ com- 
ing again into the field of the world. 

The reaping with the sickle is the gathering the church 
out of the earth to meet Him in the air. 

The grain of mustard seed represents the church in 
the beginning. 

In the beginning the church seemed like a very little, 
a very insignificant thing. 

The growing up of the little seed into a great herb, a 
mighty tree, is the sudden increase of the church in num- 
bers and power. 

The branches spreading out in every direction, the ex- 
pansion of the church in all the world, 

143 



144 SPIRITUAL GROWTH. 

The fowls that find shelter and shade in the branches 
are Satan and his agents according to the declaration of 
headquarters in Matthew xiii: 4, 19. "Some seeds fell 
bv the way-side, and the fowls came and devoured them 
up. When any one heareth the word of the kingdom, 
and understandeth it not, then cometh the wicked one, 
and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart." 

The: Two Sesds. 

These two seeds represent the church in its inward and 
true character, and in its outward and professing char- 
acter. 

Both represent growth, but one is the growth of the 
church spiritually, the other is the growth of the church 
in worldliness. 

The two seeds, then, represent spiritual growth and 
worldly growth. 

The mustard tree represents the growth of the church, 
and the profession of Christ in worldliness. The more 
a tree grows the more it takes root in the ground. Its 
expansion outward is in exact proportion to its root 
downward. 

There is a profession of Christ both in individuals 
and churches which becomes worldly in the exact ratio 
of its growth. 

Some churches are full of growth, crowded, pros- 
perous ; but when they are examined it will be found 
that they are rooted in the world and draw all their in- 
spiration and power from worldly things. They are 
nothing more nor less than natural organizations with 
here and there a modicum of spirituality; their growth 
is in worldly things, worldly methods and principles. 
They are worldly churches, religious, but not spiritual. 

There are individual professors of Christ of whom this 



SPIRITUAL GROWTH. 145 

is also true. They make a profession of Christ, but 
they find their root and fatness in the world, and when 
left to themselves or given full sweep, will bring the 
world into the church even as the "mixed multitude" 
brought Egypt and Egypt's ways among the children 
of Israel. The profession of Christ that grows into the 
world and expands in its strength affords sooner or 
later a shelter and vantage ground for Satan and those 
who are his, as every page of church history shows. 

The outward expansion of a church then, and the mere 
religiousness of a professor of Christ, do> not indicate 
spiritual growth. 

If the mustard tree stands for natural and worldly 
growth, the grain of corn in its development stands for 
just the opposite. 

The more a mustard tree grows upward the more 
it tightens its grasp on the earth ; the more a stalk of 
corn grows upward the more it loosens its hold on the 
earth. The law is that as it ripens towards heaven it 
loosens towards earth. 

The mustard tree needs no care but the corn must be 
constantly cultivated, you cannot neglect it. You must 
keep the hoe going all the time. If you are going to 
grow corn you must be the man or woman with a hoe. 
You must keep out the weeds. You must keep the" earth 
loose about the roots. The mustard tree is a natural 
growth, it grows wild, it needs no care. The corn is not 
a natural growth. There is no such thing as wild corn. 
It is purely and simply the gift of God and must be so 
dealt with. 

The analogy is self-evident. The Christian is not the 
development of the natural life, he is the gift of God. 
He does not belong in the earth, and as he grows and 



146 SPIRITUAL GROWTH. 

ripens he will loosen his hold on it and grow and ripen 
in heavenly things. The world and worldly things will 
have less and less claim upon him, heaven and spiritual 
things will more and more attract him. 

But great care will be required for this heavenly and 
spiritual growth. If you would thrive you must keep 
the hoe going, loosen the earth about you, cast out the 
weeds, and in patience wait on the rain the dew and 
sunshine of heavenly grace. And as you grow you will 
find your place as a perfect grain in the divine ear. As 
you grow no fowls wil find a resting place in you or a 
church composed of those like unto you. They may 
peck at, and fly over you, but they cannot find shelter 
with you, and you will ripen, not in the sun, but in the 
son, towards the harvest hour and the sickle's swing in 
the Master's hand. 

Certain definite lessons are taught here: 

i. Spiritual growth is necessary, as all growth is 
necessary, for evidence of life, evidence to ourselves and, 
particularly, evidence to others. 

2. Spiritual growth can be maintained only by and 
through the Word of God. 

The Word is the germ power. It is the seed of spir- 
itual things. Our Lord Himself declares that the words 
He spake were "spirit and life." (John vi : 63.) Where- 
fore the Apostle Peter says : "Precious promises ; that by 
these ye might be partakers of the divine nature." (II 
Peter i: 4.) Thus the apostle Paul also exhorts: "Let 
the Word of Christ dwell i.n us richly." (Col. iii : 16.) 
You may read study and fill your mind with the best 
natural literature in the world it will not stir a single 
atom of spiritual life, or growth; the growth can come 
only from the divine seed, the Word of the Living God ; 
and it must indeed be in our hearts. 



SPIRITUAL GROWTH. 147 

3. Spiritual growth will be in proportion to the atti- 
tude we hold in relation to< the Word of God. 

In verse 24 the Lord says very significantly, "Take 
heed zvhat ye hear." That is to say also, how ye hear. 
Socrates has said there is an eloquence of the lip, and an 
eloquence of the ear. It is the eloquence of the ear that 
is needed, giving attention to what God says, that His 
Word may enter deeply and germinatingly into the heart. 
But it must be a hearing that is prompted and inspired 
by faith. All the failure of Israel was due to the fact 
that "the Word preached unto* them did not profit, not 
being mixed with faith in them that heard it." (He- 
brews iv: 2.) 

4. In spiritual growth there is to be no toiling, no 
labor, or effort. 

When a child grows it does not labor, it just grows. 
This is what our Lord taught in the parable of the lilies. 
He bids us consider the lilies, how they toil not neither 
do they spin ; He does not draw our attention to their 
beauty so much, although Solomon in all his glory was 
not clothed like unto them, but to the great fact that 
they grow without toiling; they rest where they find 
themselves, and quietly and gladly receive ; receive air 
and light, dew and rain, sun and heat ; and then just grow 
heavenward in their royal beauty. So we are to rest 
where God has planted us, and receive ; drink in the truth 
and blessing that heaven pours upon us in the Word, 
and grow as perfect grains in the golden ear of corn. 

A forest of mustard trees, every branch filled with 
fowls of the air, would not attract you, no matter how 
strong and lusty the growth of the tree and branch. 
But a field of corn would attract and inspire you. 

I remember riding in the West by a field of thousands 



148 SPIRITUAL GROWTH. 

of acres of corn. At one moment the field seemed like 
an army, rank on rank, each several stalk an upright 
soldier standing in the sun. At another like a vast and 
mighty sea of life, swelling, rising, and moving on with 
lifted waves to the infinite horizon. As I looked I saw 
the yellow corn bursting in its golden beauty from the 
emerald folds about- it, and I knew that it meant bread 
and life, strength and hope, to multitudes of the sons of 
men. As I listened I heard the wind sighing and sing- 
ing through the vast and ordered way, until the tassels, 
fine as feathers, rose and fell like martial plumes; and the 
sight and sounds were as a blessing and a benediction to 
my soul; for I saw and heard the parable of my Master. 
I saw the Christian Church as an army with banners. I 
saw it also as a wide sea of perfect and heavenly life, 
rising and swelling towards the infinite glory, bearing on 
every wave hope and blessing to the souls of men. I 
heard it in the soft tender music of the Spirit Divine 
breathing across each individual and spiritual soul and 
making praises unto Him who gave His life for us, and 
gave it unto us that we might also bring forth abundant 
fruit of life divine. 

Oh, may we in the church be as a field of ripening 
corn, growing as perfect grains in the swelling ear, 
growing as individual Christians in the Master's likeness. 
Let us remember too that corn as it grows in all its yel- 
low beauty in the field is but another name for stored-np 
sunshine ; and may we grow until we shall become indeed 
ourselves the stored-up shining of God's eternal Son; 
growing so that we may be the S. O. N. -Shine, the son- 
light of God, giving light and hope, joy and blessing, to 
the troubled hearts of the sons of men. 



A FRIEND IN NEED. 



J\ friend in Heed. 



Luke x: 26-15. 

The certain man in the story who goes down from 
Jerusalem to Jericho, is the sinner. 

.The going down from Jerusalem is the Fall of man, 
going down from heavenly and spiritual heights to 
earthly and sinful depths. 

The thieves who stripped him wounded him and left 
him half dead, are the sins and passions of human nature. 

Half dead is the condition of every natural man; dead 
on the side of heaven and spiritual things and alive on 
the side of the earth and earthly things; and that is say- 
ing that he is, really, only half alive. 

The priest who saw him and passed by on the other 
side is the Law. It has no fellowship with the sinner, 
cannot help him ; when it comes near can do nothing but 
condemn him, and pass by on the other side of righteous- 
ness, the side that bids the sinner be left alone to help- 
lessness and death. 

The Levite who acted like the priest represents the 
good works which the law demands and cannot obtain 
from man because he is wounded and helpless in sin, 
and must thus pass him by on the same side of righteous- 
ness with the law. 

The Samaritan who came where he was is the Lord 
Jesus Christ who does not wait for the sinner to come to 
him, but comes down to where the sinner is, to his state 
of sin and woe. 

The oil and wine poured into the traveller's wounds, 
the spirit and joy which the Lord Jesus gives to the sin- 
ner whom He saves on the highway-side of time. The 



i52 A PRIBND IN NBBD. 

Samaritan giving the wounded man his own beast is the 
Lord Jesus giving to the sinner His own power of loco- 
motion. It is the power of Christ given to the powerless 
sinner. The Inn is the church, a stopping-place for 
travellers, for those who can tarry but a night, the night 
of time. 

The host in whose care the wounded man is left is the 
Holy Ghost, seen not as an influence, but as a living 
person, the Care-taker, the Paraclete, the Comforter. 

He is in the church corporately, and in us as indi- 
viduals to take care of us and comfort us while the Lord 
is away. 

The money left by the Samaritan in the hands of the 
host to be credited to and expended for the traveller 
are the gifts which the Holy Ghost has in charge, in 
store, for the church, of Christ and every Christian. 

The responsibility of the host to take care of the cer- 
tain man while the Samaritan was away is the responsi- 
bility and office-work of the Holy Ghost in the church 
during the absence of the Lord; and as the host in the 
story was an inn-keeper so, in all reverence be it said, 
the Holy Ghost is the Inn-keeper, the Inn-keeper in the 
loftiest sense, for only by and through Him can the 
Christian be kept in, and housed and held, while the good 
Samaritan is away. 

The promise of the Samaritan to come again is the 
last promise which Christ gave to His church: "Behold, 
I come quickly." 

The hope which both the traveller and the host had 
that the Samaritan would return is the Hope of the 
church now, and her true attitude is to be like that of the 
traveller, expecting Him, waiting for Him. 

This is the typical and doctrinal side of the parable. 



A PRIBND IN NEED. 153 

It teaches, however, many and suggestive lessons. 

Among others we get here a rebuke to the Jews who 
professed to be followers of God, the true exponents of 
the law, and despised the Samaritans as godless and 
hopeless sinners. 

In the face of this pretension the Lord shows the Jews, 
in the persons of the priest and Levite failing to meet 
the law on its lower and easier side, the side which re- 
quired that they should love their neighbor as them- 
selves; and then pictures to them this despised Samari- 
tan, fully and completely carrying out all that the law 
demanded in taking care so unselfishly of the wounded 
man. 

By this he would show them that religious profession 
without practice is mere hypocrisy, and that he who does 
not make a profession but practices what God requires, 
is the true and real professor, the real confessor of God 
and His ways. 

It is also a prophetic forecast that God would find His 
true witnesses in this age, not among the Jews but out- 
side of that nation altogether, and among the Gentiles. 

I pass by these suggestions, however, and draw your 
attention to three practical lessons: 

1. The answer to the question, ''Who is my neigh- 
bor?" 

My neighbor is everyone who is wounded of Satan 
and sin; everyone half-dead with his assaults whom I 
meet in the journey of time. We meet him at every 
turn, sick, sore troubled unto death, stripped, without 
Christ, without hope, and without God in the world: this 
is your neighbor and mine. 

2. Our responsibility to our neighbor. 
"Go, and do thou likewise." 



154 A FRIEND IN NEED 

That means go, not sit still, but go. All the commis- 
sions of Christ have "go" in them, and if we would ful- 
fill the mission of Christ there must be "go" in us. Go, 
go where the sinner is, do not wait for him to come to 
us, do not wait for him to hunt us up, but go where he 
is. Go hunt him up, go to him. Go, and bring him 
into contact with the beast of the Samaritan, that is, into 
contact with the power of Christ. That is all they did at 
the grave of Lazarus. They rolled away the stone and 
brought the dead face to face with the Living Christ 
and in contact with His power. 

This is what you are to do, what I am to do. 

We are to bring our neighbor to the Inn, bring him 
to the church. Never stop till you get him in the church 
and a part of it. What a mistake the Samaritan would 
have made if after giving him attention in a degree he 
had left the wounded man by the wayside. That is the 
mistake with some kinds of Christian work to-day. It 
gets the half-dead man aroused and then leaves him out- 
side the church. Nay, bring your neighbor into the Inn, 
get him into the church without fail. 

We must bring our neighbor to the Host and to his 
care. 

Hand him over to the blessed Care-taker, the Holy 
Ghost; hand him over by means of faith and prayer. 

Do not make any mistake about this. 

Going and doing as the Samaritan did does not mean 
going down to Tenth Avenue or the slums, giving soup, 
clothes and medicine, to the hungry, naked and sick; all 
that is right and must not be left undone, but this 
parable means a very much larger thing than that; it 
means bringing men to the salvation of Jesus Christ. 
That is what we are to do with our neighbor. 



A FRIEND IN NEED. 155 

It is the commission of the church and of each indi- 
vidual in the church. It is individual; listen, "go thou." 
That hits it, hits you every time, hits me every time. 

We are to go, each one of us, to the half-dead souls, 
our neighbors, and bring them to Christ, and to His 
church. 

3. Our responsibility to the Lord Himself, the true 
Samaritan. He says, "Go." It is His command, a com- 
mand as loud as Sinai. We cannot escape from it. We 
must answer the demand at the Judgment Seat of Christ. 
We will be asked there questions concerning our neigh- 
bor. We will be asked whether we did use all our ef- 
forts to bring him to the Inn, the church, and the care 
of the Holy Spirit. 

How will we answer then? 

How are we answering now; what are we doing? 

Here are our neighbors, a great crowd of them, 
stripped, half-dead; some of them very beautiful, gracious 
lives, full of life towards the earth, and earthly things, 
but wholly dead towards God, and with no robe of 
righteousness to make them acceptable in His sight. 
We meet them every day. We know that they are 
wounded, suffering. We know that unless we step in 
and seek to save them they are woefully lost. 

What are we doing? 

Are we meeting our robbed and half-dead neighbor, 
laughing, talking, jesting about many things, but never 
once warning him of his eternal danger; never once seek- 
ing to bind up his wounds, or bring him to the Inn for 
rest and care in Christ? Are we evading our Lord's 
solemn command, every day, every hour of His won- 
drous grace? Are we, like the priest and the Levite, 
making a mere profession of religion, denying its prac- 
tical obligations, and passing by on the other side? 



156 A FRIEND IN NEED 

Oh, I am sure we are not, nor do we wish, I am equally 
sure, that this shall be true in any measure of us. Never- 
theless, let us arouse ; let us pray the Lord to anoint 
our eyes with eye-salve that we may see clearly who is 
our neighbor, and that we may have grace to go and 
seek him in his need and bring him to a Saviour's hands 
to heal. 

And as we search out these neighbors fallen by the 
way, and in His name bring them one after another to 
the Inn, we shall be, each of us in spirit a good Samari- 
tan, that "Friend in Need," who is a friend, indeed. 



UNHESITATING CONFIDENCE. 



Unhesitating Confidence. 

II Timothy i: 12. 

"I know whom I have. believed, and am persuaded that 
He is able to keep that which I have committed unto 
Him against that day." 

This text is an outburst of confidence. The occasion 
of it is Paul's reference to his afflictions. In the preced- 
ing verses he declares that he suffers affliction because 
he is a preacher to the Gentiles. As a preacher to the 
Gentiles he suffers on the one side from Jewish hatred, 
on the other from Gentile mockery. Both combine to 
make his afflictions many and his sufferings intense. 
The record of them is extraordinary. He has been an 
inmate of prisons. He has been publicly flogged. He 
has received one hundred and ninety-five stripes on the 
back. He has been three times beaten with rods. He 
has been stoned and left for dead. He has been betrayed 
by Jew and assaulted by Gentile. He has been naked, 
cold and hungry. He has been houseless and homeless. 
The Jews hated him because he declared that a Jew cruci- 
fied on a Roman cross was their Messiah. He was 
mocked by the Gentiles because he taught that the Jew 
whom they crucified had risen from the dead, sat on the 
right hand of God, and was. now the alone Saviour of the 
world. 

To continue this preaching meant only to multiply 
afflictions and emphasize sufferings. At every step there 
would be a prison door, the lifted hand of violence, or 
the darkling shadow of death. In every voice there 
would be a threat, in every look a scowl, on every brow 
a wrinkle of hate, and on every lip a smile of contempt. 

159 



i6o UNHESITATING CONFIDENCE. 

But none of these things move him; on the contrary, as 
he contemplates his sufferings, knows that he is looked 
upon as the offscouring of the world, and that should he 
be put to death it would be with ignominy and shame, 
cries out in a voice that has *in it a trumpet's ring. 
''Nevertheless I am not ashamed;" and sets himself at 
once to exhort Timothy to steadfastness, to faith, and 
thus proclaims himself in word as he does in deed, the 
very incarnation of dauntless courage and unhesitating 
confidence. 

The source of this confidence is three-fold: 

i. He knows whom he has believed. 

He knows that the Person whom he has believed 
is the image of the invisible God, the express image of 
His person, and the brightness of His glory. He knows 
that He is the Creator of heaven and earth, He by whom 
all things were made, by whom all things consist, and the 
supreme centre about whom all things move. He knows 
that He is the Son of God, yet God the Son, He who 
came to be man, died for men, rose again, sits at the 
right hand of God, and is the man in whom dwelleth all 
the fullness of the Godhead bodily — even Jesus of Naza- 
reth, the Christ of God. He knows Him as his Sacrifice 
for sin, his Substitute, his Redeemer, his Lord and 
Master , his precious Saviour. He knew that this 
Saviour loved him and gave Himself for him. He knew 
all this because Jesus Christ had appeared to him above 
the Damascus gates in glory, and had there revealed 
Himself brighter than the mid-day sun. He knew these 
things because when he took the life which this glorified 
man had lived on earth and put it side by side with the 
Holy Scriptures which he had studied from his youth 
up, he saw that these Scriptures and the Man fitted each 



UNHESITATING CONFIDENCE. 161 

other as the hand and the glove fit each other ; and thus 
he knew that Jesus of Nazareth was none other than He 
of whom Moses and the prophets did write. He knew 
all this and he knew Him in all these things; and yet 
knew Him in a still deeper and fuller way. 

He knew Him as the One who makes a constant reve- 
lation of Himself to those who love and serve Him. He 
had met Him in prison, on the decks of sinking ships, 
had talked with Him, and felt the touch of His love, His 
grace and power. 

In a word, Paul had experienced Christ in his daily 
life; he knew Him not only in His outward glory, but by 
the Spirit's power in his own soul; so that he could say 
as no other man has ever surpassed him in saying it, 
"Christ in us, the hope of glory;" he knew for himself 
and not another. 

There might be doubt, uncertainty about everything 
else in the universe, there could be no doubt about Jesus 
Christ. 

He knew Him, felt Him, had Him not only on the 
throne up there, but here under his breast, in every beat 
of his heart; so much a part of himself that he could say, 
"He that is joined to the Lord is one Spirit." 

And thus Paul's confidence was born of that kind of 
knowledge which in the last analysis we call conscious- 
ness. 

He had the consciousness of Christ, and could there- 
fore say in the profoundest sense of the phrase, "I know 
Him." 

2. He was persuaded that Christ would keep that 
which he had committed to Him. 

Paul had committed something to Christ. He had 
committed his spirit, his body, himself: all he was in his 



162 UNHESITATING CONFIDENCE. 

daily life, his thought, his word, deeds, every circum- 
stance and condition. 

Paul had made his committal to Christ. 

But the text may be translated so that it will read that 
Christ had committed something to Paul. And He had. 
He had committed to him His own very nature; He had 
committed to him the Holy Spirit, yea He had committed 
Himself through that Spirit, so that Paul could say, "It 
is no longer I, but Christ that liveth in me." And Paul 
was assured that Christ would keep this double com- 
mittal, keep Paul, and keep what He Himself had given 
to Paul. He is persuaded that Christ will do the keep- 
ing. That word "persuaded" means convince. He is 
convinced. No thought, no question about it arises. 
He is convinced by all that Christ is, by all that Christ 
has done, and by all that profound consciousness of 
Christ which nothing can disturb. Christ is his keeper, 
walling him about with His omnipotent and loving 
Providence, standing guard over all his circumstances. 
He is himself so one with Christ that any blow on him 
must be a blow on Christ. 

What matter then whether a dungeon or a palace, a 
desert or a town, hunger or nakedness, death or life. 
Christ was on guard: Christ would keep watch through 
the midnight till the morn. 

The keeping power of Christ, this was another of 
Paul's sources of confidence. 

3. He is persuaded that Christ will keep him till that 
day. 

In the text he calls it that day. In other writings he 
speaks of it as the Day of Christ. That day is coming. 
The day when Christ shall rule unhinderedly over the 
earth. The day when sin, sickness, sorrow and death 



UNHESITATING CONFIDENCE. 163 

shall flee away; and when life shall be as it ought to be, 
a poem, a psalm of praise, a perfect delight, a victory for 
God. Paul knows that the Day of Christ will be the Day 
of the Christian; that in that day the Christian will be 
transfigured, glorified, immortal, shining in the image of 
the resplendent Christ, and filled with the unspeakable 
felicity of God. He knows that Christ will keep him till 
that day, and for that day. 

He knows that the whole object of his redemption, 
Paul's redemption, has been that he might be brought 
into that day and set forth as the trophy of God's grace, 
as the subject of God's kindness through the ages to 
come. 

He is fully persuaded. 

The blood of Christ, the Spirit of Christ, the Word of 
Christ, the past faithfulness of Christ, the inner con- 
sciousness of Christ, all proclaim the fact that Christ will 
keep him to, and for, that day. 

He knows that in that day he will find compensation 
for all his losses, honor for all his shame, wealth for all 
his poverty, healing for every stripe, balm for every 
wound, a crown for every robbery, and God's honor and 
glory for every contempt of man; and above all, that he 
shall see Christ as He is, and hear Him say: "Well done, 
thou good and faithful servant;" and thus in the eyes of 
all who smote him, and in the eyes of all the universe, be 
justified as the preacher to the Gentiles, the witness of 
the Gospel of the grace of God. 

Paul knows that Christ is coming to inaugurate that 
Day. 

He may come sooner or He may come later. No 
matter. Say that He should not come for weary cen- 
turies; say that Paul should die, and his body turn to 



r i64 UNHESITATING CONFIDENCE. 

dust; say that no man should know his sepulchre and all 
men should forget him, that even his name should be 
lost to memory; no matter, Paul knew that He who made 
Orion and the Seven Stars, who lay a babe in Mary's 
breast, who hung a victim on the cruel cross, who lay a 
dead body in a borrowed grave, who was sitting yonder in 
heaven, the "Man in Glory," who held Paul's heart to 
His own by the indwelling Spirit and the very throbs of 
the Divine nature, who had pledged blood and honor, 
and the very word that upheld the universe, would watch 
over his dust, would receive his spirit, and when the 
morning came "without clouds" would bring him forth 
as a shining jewel from the dusty jewel-case of the grave, 
and flash him out as a matchless brilliant in the glory- 
crown. 

And Paul was at ease. Paul was content. Paul was 
confident, with a confidence that never faltered, a con- 
fidence that carried him to the sword of death, and made 
him, as he thought on the eve of his execution, write that 
sublime sentence: "I have fought a good fight, I have 
finished my course, I have kept the faith; henceforth 
there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which 
the Lord, the Righteous Judge, shall give me at that 
day." 

The view of Christ in all His glory as revealed by Paul 
in the written word, the experience of Christ in the heart 
as ministered by the spirit and the word, these are the 
sources of confidence for those who profess His name. 

These are the sources of, and inspiration for, service 
and steadfastness in the face of any trouble, on the brink 
of any woe. 

This is the hour when confidence is lacking. It is the 
time when doubt, uncertainty and spiritual ignorance are 



UNHESITATING CONFIDENCE. 165 

universal. It is the time, therefore, that needs the tonic 
of spiritual assurance. The Christian who is confident 
in Christ, the church that is full of confident Christians, 
Christians who believe, who know, who are persuaded, 
and who experience the changeless Christ in their hearts, 
are the Christians and the church that shall move the 
world, win souls, establish the faith, and glorify God. 



A NEW NAME. 



n Dew name. 

II Timothy it: ig. 



"Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, 
having this seal, the Lord knoweth them that are his. 
And let everyone that nameth the name of Christ de- 
part from iniquity." 

To name the name of Christ is to profess the name 
of Christ. 

To profess the name of Christ is to call oneself by the 
name of Christ. To call oneself by the name of Christ 
is to call oneself a Christian. To call oneself a Chris- 
tian is to call oneself by a new name. No matter by 
what name or names one may have called oneself before, 
there is one name by which God has known and called 
that person, and that name is Sinner. That was the 
old name. But the moment the sinner professes the 
name of Christ he is called of God by a new name, and 
that new name is Christian. 

That this new name is Christian is the declaration of 
Holy Scripture. In the book of Acts, xi : 26, it is written : 
"The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch." It 
is popularly supposed that this title was given as a nick- 
name by the light and frivolous populace of Antioch. 

But such conclusion is a grave and unwarrantable 
mistake. 

The Greek verb to call employed here is never used ex- 
cept when the person speaking or calling is God. When 
therefore it is said that the disciples were called Chris- 
tians first at Antioch, it is simply saying that God calls 

169 



170 A NEW NAME. 

those who name the name of Christ, Christians ; and that 
he did so for the first time officially at Antioch. That 
this is the official name of those who name the name of 
Christ is corroborated on the one hand by the exhortation 
of the Apostle Peter, who declares that if any man suffer 
as a "Christian" he need not be ashamed, and on the other 
hand by that pathetic wailing cry of king Agrippa when 
he says in response to the inspired pleading of the 
Apostle Paul, "Almost thou persuadest me to be a Chris- 
tian." Thus by the act of the individual, the logic of 
nomenclature, and the declared will of God, those who 
name the name of Christ are called Christians ; and there- 
fore Christian is both a new and divinely given name. 

In the verses which precede the text the Apostle is 
exhorting Timothy to give correct teaching to Christians 
under his charge; to rightly divide the Word of Truth. 
There were those who did not rightly divide it. Two 
of them, Hymeneus and Philetus, taught that the resur- 
rection of Christians was already past, and thereby over- 
threw the faith of some. 

"Nevertheless," says the Apostle, "the foundation of 
God standeth sure, having this seal." By this he would 
say that in spite of such overthrow there were those 
who were genuine Christians, who, no matter what the 
teaching or circumstances, could not be cast down either 
in faith or character; that they were God's work, God's 
building, God's founding. And just as in those days, 
and sometimes in ours, the contractor and builder puts 
his seal in the foundation to indicate his responsibility 
for, and his confidence in, his work, so God has put his 
seal upon those who are really and truly Christians. 

This seal the Apostle asserts is double, it has two sides, 
it has two inscriptions. 



A NEW NAME. 171 

On the one side the seal reads : 

"The Lord knoweth them that are his." That is 
Divine Assurance. 

The other side of the seal reads : 

"And let everyone that nameth the name of Christ 
depart from iniquity." That is the Manifested Charac- 
teristic of those who are the Lord's. 

Each genuine Christian bears these two marks of the 
seal. 

One mark towards God assuring him, bearing wit- 
ness to, and justifying him. 

The other mark towards the Christian and the world 
at large, bearing witness to the consciousness of the one, 
and the observation of the other. 

Let us consider the seal on the side towards God, the 
Lord. 

1. "The Lord knoweth them that are his." 

He, himself, made this statement when on the earth. 
He declared that he knew those who were his, and that 
he knew them by name. He knew them before they were 
born into the world. 

He knew them before the world itself was born, or 
ever the stars were made. He knew them from all 
eternity. From its unbeginning depths their names both 
as sinners and Christians were engraven on his heart. 
When therefore he reaches down and by his Spirit 
through the Gospel calls one here and another there to 
name his name, to profess him, to follow him, to be 
his disciple, to become a Christian, he makes no mis- 
take, he cannot be deceived. Men may deceive one 
another, men may deceive themselves, they cannot de- 
ceive him. He knows them that are his. Knows where 
they are born, under what circumstances they have lived, 



172 A NEW NAME. 

what is their past in all its details, so that nothing is 
hidden from his view. Knows just where and what 
they are at this hour, and all things that may pass. 
Knows all their ways in the coming days of time, and 
sees them on even into the midst of the farthest reach 
of their sure and shining glory. Every failure, every 
tear, every trouble, every struggle of theirs is known; 
and he knows, come what may, even though for a time 
they seem cast down, that they will rise above all cir- 
cumstances and conditions, victors at the last. In his 
mind they are as eternal as the ages, as sure as his 
throne, as certain as his own pledged word and cov- 
enant. They are his work, his building, his founda- 
tion, the foundation that shall outlast the wreck, of time 
itself. So sure and certified are they before him that 
no place ever once ordained for the Christian, the true 
Christian, in the glory, shall ever be vacant, no seat at the 
Father's table shall ever be empty, nor any Christian ear 
ever miss the music of the welcome home. 

They are as much his as his own heart, and he is con- 
tent : he knoweth them that are his. He has put his own 
private mark on them, and he can point them out with 
confidence to the onlookers of heaven, saying of them 
now up there, as he said down here, "I know them that 
are mine.''" 

In a word then, the mark, the seal, the evidence to the 
Lord that such and such a professed Christian is his, is 
the consciousness which he has of them. He is con- 
scious of them because the true Christian impresses him- 
self on that consciousness, and thus in the profoundest 
sense of the word it may be said, "the Lord knoweth 
them that are his." 

Consider the other side of the seal, the Manifested 
Characteristic of the genuine Christian. 



A NEW NAME. 173 

2. "And let everyone that nameth the name of Christ 
depart from iniquity." 

Departure from iniquity is the characteristic o>f every- 
one who is the Lord's. 

The law of this departure is in the name of Christ. 

The name of Christ stands for the power of departure 
from iniquity. It stands for righteousness, holiness, and 
truth, for the communication of these qualities to a 
human soul. 

It stands for resurrection life and its impartation, for 
the communication and indwelling of the Holy Spirit, 
for vital union with humanity ; in short, for reincarnation 
and enthronement of God in a human life. And he who 
professes the name of Christ, professes the realization of 
all these conditions and forces in his own experience. 
To profess the name of Christ then and continue to live 
in sin is, on the one hand, to deny the name of Christ, 
to contradict it for all it stands, to make of it a scandal 
and a shame ; and on the other hand to confess oneself 
a stranger to all the power of departure from iniquity 
which that name and its profession demands. 

And that name does demand it. It is as much a de- 
mand upon the one who professes it as the beating of the 
heart, the respiration of the lungs, or the circulation of 
the blood, are the demand of the natural life. And just 
as the absence of these conditions witnesses the absence 
of life, or at least the consciousness of its power, and 
raises a suspicion as to life altogether, so the failure 
on the part of a professed Christian to depart from 
iniquity, bears witness that he is unconscious of the 
power of Christ, and raises a suspicion of his relation to 
Him either as his life or his Lord. 

Departure from iniquity is therefore absolutely neces- 



174 A NEW NAME. 

sary as a characteristic demonstration that he who pro- 
fesses the name of Christ is in truth the Lord's. 

This departure is to be open and unqualified, a new- 
departure in life. Not only a departure from the old 
ways of sin and iniquity, from old methods and prin- 
ciples, but a departure into the new ways of righteous- 
ness and truth. 

The point of departure is the naming of the name of 
Christ, and therefore, the claiming and professing the 
name of Christian. 

And this departure must be from the very moment that 
the name of Christ is named. From that moment it 
must be as clear and distinct a departure, as when a man 
turns his back on the point towards which he has been 
travelling, and departs in the opposite direction. It must 
be a departure as sharply defined as when the train de- 
parts from the station, and with each revolving wheel 
leaves the point of departure farther and farther be- 
hind. It must be as marked as when the ship departs 
from the shore, and puts leagues on leagues of rolling 
water as a distinct element between it and the land, its 
point of departure. The one who names the name of 
Christ must turn his back on the point of sin towards 
which he was travelling, and depart in the opposite di- 
rection of Holiness, with each succeeding step leaving 
the old way of sin farther and farther behind him, put- 
ting the measureless depths of a new and spiritual exist- 
ence between him and the old life. A departure so su- 
preme, that he who wears the new name of Christian, fits 
it with the new departure in his life ; so it, that the 
life flowing out of that departure is as new as the name. 

Such a departure is a witness to the individual that he 
is the Lord's; for he knows that of himself he has no 



A NEW NAME. 175 

power to overcome the inertia of sin, or make any de- 
parture in Holiness. 

It is a witness to the world ; for men of the world know 
their own helplessness, and the spectacle of a natural sin 
ful human being, departing into a life that bears all 
the characteristics of the life of Christ, is a witness to 
them of an intimate and complete relation between the 
Christian and Christ. 

Nor is this the only testimony such a departure bears ; 
nay, it testifies of the truth of Christ, the truth of all 
that is claimed for him, not only that he lived, but that 
he is alive now upon the throne of God, and is there, 
and from thence, the supreme power of God in the 
human life that owns him. 

No greater witness to the resurrection and sonship of 
Christ can be given, than this spectacle of one who has 
lived a life of sin, naming the name of Christ, from that 
moment departing from sin and iniquity, living a life 
of Holiness, and making Christ every day the law and 
mastery of his being. 

Such an experience as that, is, beyond all argument of 
speech, beyond all logic and rhetoric, a demonstration 
that Christ is alive. No dead cause can produce living 
effects ; since therefore the naming of Christ, and the 
claiming of Christ, produce living effects, then Christ 
is the cause, and Christ is alive from the dead, the as- 
cended, exalted Lord. 

Thus the new name of Christian becomes the trans- 
lucent name through which shines forth the deeper name 
of Christ, and the glory of his unspeakable Lordship, 
while, at the same time, it reveals the Christian's relation 
to him, and stamps that Christian as the Lord's. 

Departure from iniquity then, is the indisputable seal 



176 A NEW NAME. 

that the professor of Christ, is the possessor of Christ, 
and is possessed by him, and is, indeed, the Lord's. 

Are we giving this mark of genuine Christianity to 
men, are we stampng it on our own consciousness, and 
thus justifying our claim to a new name, this new name 
Christian? The word of command is, the law absolute 
is, "Let everyone that nameth the name of Christ depart 
from iniquity." 

Who then can measure the importance, the obligation, 
the irrevocable necessity on the part of everyone who 
names the name of Christ, to depart from iniquity? 



THE INDWELLING PRESENCE. 



Cbe indwelling Presence. 



Galatians it: 20. 
Colossians i: 21-29. 



The Indwelling Presence is the Risen Christ. 

In Galatians ii: 20, it is "Christ liveth in me." 

In Colossians i: 2y, it is "Christ in you, the Hope of 
Glory." 

In Galatians, we have the great fact. 

In Colossians, we have the Hope which this great fact 
brings. 

Let us consider, 

1. The Fact. 

"Christ liveth in me." 

The stupendous thought presented is The Reincarna- 
tion of Christ. The risen Christ dwelling in the flesh. 
Christ dwelling in the earth, ministering in, and through 
a human body, just as he did in the days when he was 
known only in the body of Jesus of Nazareth. 

And this is the sum total of Christianity. 

This is its highest definition. 

Christ in Christians, by and through them multiplied, 
and become the omnipresent, as he is the omnipotent 
man, manifesting God in life and blessing to men. 

Not only dwelling in the church and Christianity in 
general, but in the individual and particular Christian, 
so that each Christian may say, "Christ liveth in me." 

Christ lives in each Christian in a two-fold way. 

He lives in him by, 

His communicated Nature. 

When the individual believes on the Lord Jesus Christ, 
owns him as his Saviour and Lord, the very essence of 

179 



180 THE INDWELLING PRESENCE. 

Christ as the Risen, Divine Man, is communicated to 
him. He is made a partaker of the Divine nature, he is 
made a partaker of Christ. It is this which makes a 
Christian, the nature of Christ added to the nature of 
Adam in the believer. The nature of the Second man 
coming in and dwelling by the side of the First man. It 
is a new generation. It is regeneration. 

By giving his nature, his mind, his desires, Christ es- 
sentially lives in the Christian. 

There is also another way by which he lives in him. 

He lives in him by, 

The Holy Spirit. 

It is true he lives in him by the Holy Spirit when he 
makes him a partaker of his nature, for it is by the 
Spirit through the Word that nature is communicated, 
but he lives in him in a still deeper and more wonderful 
way by the Spirit. 

That is to say, after the resurrection and ascension of 
Christ in his glorified body to the throne of God, the 
Holy Spirit came down to take up his abode in the be- 
liever's body, to act in it in the name of Christ, and as 
his proxy, manifest him personally to the believer; so 
that while upon the throne yonder in his actual body, 
he might be manifest in his personality down here, and 
dwell in, live in, the believer's body through the Spirit, 
as though it were indeed his own very body. Just as 
personally dwell in the believer as he does upon the 
throne. 

This is the two-fold way then in which Christ dwells 
in the believer, by his nature, and the Holy Spirit. 

And this indwelling takes place on one ground alone. 
It takes place on the alone ground of the believer's co- 
crucifixion and death with Christ. 



THE INDWELLING PRESENCE. 181 

When Christ died, in God's sight, every believer died. 
In God's sight every believer is judicially at an end before 
him now, considered as a member of the old creation, 
as one in the flesh; and because he is so considered at an 
end in the old life, Christ comes by the Spirit to dwell in 
him, and in the midst of this scene of nature's death, 
bring forth the new life of a son of God. 

In the passage before us, it is the personality of Christ 
rather than the nature of Christ which is looked at. It 
is Christ himself personally who liveth in the Apostle. 

Now while it is true that the measure of Christ's nature 
in each believer is the same, that is to say regeneration 
has no degrees and is as perfect in one as another, it is 
also true that the measure of Christ's personal life de- 
pends wholly upon the believer himself, and therefore the 
degree in which Christ lives in a Christian may vary. 

Christ may be personally alive in him and yet so 
feebly alive that the believer may be scarcely conscious 
of that indwelling presence, and the world not at all. 

Two things are required for the manifestations of the 
indwelling presence: 

First, the believer must own himself as crucified with 
Christ, and dead. At an end before God for all things 
in his old life, not only sins and vices, but virtues and 
righteousnesses. 

Henceforth he must no longer count upon the truth 
and honor that are in him naturally, to aid and sustain 
him in his Christian life. When a man is dead and 
buried, his virtues as well as his vices are dead and buried 
with him. So, on the cross of Christ, all the good in 
nature as well as the bad was crucified; on the cross the 
whole man is dead. There is no more hope in him, or of 
him, than the man in the grave. 



i82 THE INDWELLING PRESENCE. 

In order that Christ may fully and personally live in 
him, the believer must appropriate this crucifixion with 
Christ, enter into it, and own himself as wholly dead in 
the flesh before God. 

Second, as one who is dead and therefore has no longer 
any power over his body, he must yield himself up to the 
personal, indwelling Christ. 

It is well known that certain minds and temperaments 
can be so acted upon by another that they will think the 
thoughts and act out the suggestions of that other; so 
that their bodies may, in a sense, be said to be indwelt 
and possessed by that other. We call the law of this 
condition hypnotism, and we say that the person so acted 
upon is hypnotized. 

In a far higher, nobler, and thoroughly reverential 
sense, it may be suggested that it is the privilege of each 
Christian to be hypnotized by the indwelling Christ. So 
submitting ourselves to him that our minds, our wills, 
shall be his ; that we shall think his thoughts and act 
out his suggestions, until he shall possess our bodies, and 
by and through his Spirit use them as his own. 

And when it is remembered that he does actually live 
in us both by nature and Spirit, it ought to be with per- 
fect ease and full delight that we own ourselves as dead, 
yield ourselves entirely up to him, and with the Apostle 
in thankful tones cry out: "I no longer live, but Christ 
liveth in me." 

The moment this apprehension of death, and this com- 
plete surrender of self, is attained by the believer, Christ 
begins to live in him just as he lived when in his flesh 
on the earth. That is, by faith. Adam always walks by 
sight. Christ always walks by faith, and the moment we 
give him the right of way in us, he begins to live and 
walk in us by faith. 



THE INDWELLING PRESENCE. 183 

Now, when this happens a strange thing takes place. 
The believer himself begins to live, and he begins to 
live by the very faith of the Son of God. Not by his faith 
in the Son of God, but by the faith of the Son of God 
operating in him. The Son of God in him furnishes him 
faith, and through that faith enables him to live and act 
as a Son of God. 

When he is weak, when he would faint by the way, 
Christ living in him furnishes him with his own faith, 
meets him at every point with that faith, and through it 
pours forth his own life into every atom of his being, 
until the delighted believer is led to cry out with the 
Apostle : "The life which I now live in the flesh I live by 
the faith of the Son of God." 

It is a wonderful, unspeakable fact, Christ living and 
dwelling in the believer's body, exercising his own faith, 
and seeking through, the exercise of it to make the be- 
liever live in all the joy and power of the Divine sonship. 

And the splendor and power of this fact will be in 
exact proportion as the believer sees that he is crucified 
with Christ, that he no longer lives, that Christ is his 
life from the dead, and yields himself completely to him. 

This is the great fact: The Indwelling Presence — 
"Christ liveth in me." 

Consider, 

2. The hope which this great fact brings. 

"Christ in you, the Hope of Glory." Colossians i: 27. 

The glory held out in Scripture is immortality at the 
Coming of Christ, either by the resurrection of the dead, 
or the transfiguration of the living. The glory of a 
perfect body, a body that shall be like unto his own 
glorious body. 

Our Lord Jesus Christ was patient in all things, but 
he was not content that the bodv in which he dwelt 



i84 THE IN DWELLING PRESENCE. 

should remain mortal ; hence he carried it into death and 
the grave, triumphed over them in it, made it immortal, 
took it up to the throne of God, dwells in it there, and 
shall dwell in it forever, forever manifesting to the uni- 
verse the wonder of a shining', glorified, immortal, human 
body. 

If he was not content with his own body as a dwell- 
ing place till he had made it immortal, will He be per- 
fectly content till he has made our bodies as his dwell- 
ing places also immortal? Sooner or later if he tarries 
they must die and fall into decay, and thus the body that 
has been the temple of the Holy Ghost, the dwelling 
place of the eternal life, shall at the last be vanquished by 
him who has the power of death, that is the Devil; and 
over that which had once been a witness to the glory of 
Christ shall be written that victory of Satan which would 
be the shame of Christ. 

Such a consummation would be indeed a scandal to the 
Son of God, a fearful commentary on his own immor- 
tality, and a grave question as to the permanency of his 
relation to those whom he calls his own. 

In the very nature of the case it is impossible that the 
body in which Christ has ever dwelt shall finally be de- 
stroyed. In the very nature of the case he must make it 
immortal to justify his own indwelling, and the immor- 
tality which he himself achieved. Wherefore it is 
written : 

"But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the 
dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead 
shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that 
dwelleth in you." 

To say that the Father will quicken the bodies by his 
Spirit, is to say that the Son in the name of the Father 
will quicken them by the Spirit; and because the Spirit 



the indwelling presence. 185 

dwelling in them is in the name of the Son, it is the Son 
dwelling in them who will quicken them by the Spirit. 

Thus Christ living in the believer is the pledge and 
guaranty of immortality; and therefore Christ in the be- 
liever is the sure, the definite hope of glory. The hope 
that shall never be deferred, or make the heart sick. 

In carrying the Living Christ within, the believer 
carries the hope that casts its light onward to the glory 
hour, and illuminates all the way between. Just as the 
Pillar of Cloud and Fire went with the children of Israel 
by day and by night, assuring them that they were being 
guided, and guided home, so this Indwelling Presence 
picturing to us each day the Morning hour and the 
Morning land, is a constant witness that we are being 
guided, and that we are being guided home. 

What a pledge of grace, of certitude, and love. 

Well may the Apostle exclaim, speaking of this in- 
living Christ : "Who loved me and gave himself for me." 

The indwelling of this Presence brings with it a double 
obligation : 

An obligation to the world; an obligation to the In- 
dwelling Christ himself. 

As Christians, we are under obligation to the world to 
let Christ live in us so freely, so fully, that men may see 
and know Him who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. 

We are under obligation to the Indwelling Christ to 
let Him so live in us, that he may manifest himself to 
the world. 

It is his desire. This is why he ascended to the throne 
and sent down the Spirit in his name. 

He yearns to-day to use your lips and mine, our hands 
and feet. 

Yonder is one in sorest trouble. The blessed Christ 



1 86 THE INDWELLING PRESENCE. 

would speak and comfort him. He can only speak by 
your lips and mine. There is a hand that is trembling. 
He would like to take it and hold it in his own and give 
it the clasp of assurance and perfect love. He can only 
do so with your hands and mine. Up yonder flight of 
stairs, in yonder dingy room, is one sick and nigh to 
death. He would climb those stairs, kneel by the bed- 
side of the sick, and touch the fevered brow. But he 
can only climb those stairs with your feet and mine; he 
can only kneel with your knees and mine ; only with our 
hands can he touch the fevered brow; only with our 
voices utter the message of love; only through our bodies 
manifest himself to a sad and dying world. 

Shall we deny him this? 

Shall we deny him our feet to climb those stairs ; shall 
we keep back those hands that he would use ; and shall 
we seal the lips by which he would speak the tender 
message to the dying soul? 

Nay, rather, shall we not say: 

"Take my feet, and let them be 
Swift and beautiful for thee. 
Take my lips and let them be 
Filled with messages from thee. 

"Take my hands, and let them move 
At the impulse of thy love. 
Take my voice, and let me sing 
Always, only, for my King." 

And by every movement of our bodies say to men as 
we pass on our pilgrim way : "I no longer live, but Christ 
liveth in me." So live that our lives shall be a demon- 
stration that "Christ in us, the hope of glory," is the 
Indwelling Presence that guides us in that way. 



ABIDING IN CHRIST. 



Abiding in €Dri$t 



John xv : i-io. 



The key words of the passage are: 

"I am the true vine, and my Father is the husband- 
man." 

"I am the vine, ye are the branches." 

''Abide in me." 

"The branch cannot bear fruit of itself except it abide 
in the vine ; no more can ye except ye abide in me." 

"Without me ye can do nothing." 

In the preceding article in the passages, Galatians 
ii : 20, and Colossians i: 21-29, we na< ^ * ne dwelling of 
Christ in the Christian. 

In the above passage we have the dwelling of the 
Christian, in Christ. 

In the former, it was the union of Christ with the 
believer. Now, it is the union of the believer with Christ. 

The vine and the branches are used to set forth this 
union. 

Nothing could be more familiar to the disciples than 
the vine and the branches considered as a fact; nothing 
could have been more suggestive to them considered as 
a figure. 

Every day they saw the vine clambering on the hill- 
sides and spreading its branches. In the Temple where 
they had gone from childhood, and where they had re- 
cently been with Jesus in all his Passover discourses, 
they saw a golden vine with golden branches, golden 
leaves, and great clusters of golden grapes, hanging over 
its portal, set there as the symbol of that Israel whom 

i8q 



190 ABIDING IN CHRIST. 

God had planted among the nations of the earth. They 
knew that the Psalmist testified that Israel was a "vine 
out of Egypt," and that speaking to Israel by the mouth 
of the prophet Jeremiah, Jehovah had said : "I planted 
thee a noble vine," and then declared that this same 
favored Israel had become unto him "the degenerate 
plant of a strange vine." 

When therefore in the last supper hour the Master 
turned to them and said: "I am the true vine," they 
knew, even though they knew it dimly, that he had ref- 
erence not merely to the vine that grew each day before 
their faces, but to that golden symbol above the Temple 
door; and that by this he would declare that so far 
from being a branch, an individual member of Israel, 
he was himself the true vine, the very source of Israel's 
hope and spiritual life ; that he was the true plant which 
God had now set in the earth to bring forth the fruit 
which Israel had failed to give. When again therefore, 
he turned to his disciples and said: "Ye are the 
branches," they saw that Israel as a nation had been put 
aside, and that in Israel's place they were to be brought 
into union with him to form that new and vital plant- 
ing, that new and mysterious system which should bring 
forth fruit to God, to the glory of his name, even that 
mystery, the Church of Christ. 

Simple as the figure is, nothing could more fitly set 
forth the truth. 

At the beginning, it is the definite declaration that the 
relation between Christ and those who are his is real 
and vital. Just as the life of the vine pours into each 
branch and manifests its identity in each, so the life of 
Christ by the communication of his nature and Spirit 
pours into each believer, and stamps itself as the same in 



ABIDING IN CHRIST. 191 

each. Just as the branch is the duplicate and multipli- 
cation of the vine, so each believer is the duplicate and 
multiplication of Christ, his very expression; so much 
so, that each true Christian is in measure the Christ of 
God abroad in earth again. Just as the branch originates 
in the vine, draws all its life and substance from the vine, 
so the Christian originates in Christ, draws all his life 
from Christ, and in him as his environment, finds all 
the substance and the sustenance of his spiritual life. 

The object of the vine in creating the branch, the pur- 
pose of the union between them, is not for a moment to 
make a passing show of summer beauty, filling the 
branches with wealth of foliage and fragrant flower; 
it is true you get wide and verdant leaves, but while 
these express in all their profusion the surplus vigor 
of the vine, they do not stand for its beauty, nor proclaim 
its intent, and if there was nothing more than leaves, 
wonderful as they are when well examined, no passer-by 
would stop to note the vine. 

Nay, the beauty and the glory of the vine is fruit; 
purple clusters of gleaming grapes hanging in the sun, 
each several grape a purple vase filled with the essence of 
the vine, that distillation of the juice of its root intended 
of God to fill the heart of man with joy, and make his 
face to shine. 

Nor is the relation between Christ and the Christian 
intended for mere profession, theologic terms, or homi- 
letic discussion, but for the bringing forth of fruit, royal 
clustered fruit, each several element of that fruit like 
each several grape, filled with the essence of Christ, the 
distillation of his strength, that strength which alone 
can fill the heart of man with joy, and make his face to 
shine. Fruit whose every part is named, as the Apostle 



i$2 ABIDING IN CHRIST. 

names them when he writes: "The fruit of the Spirit," 
and mark you, it is not "fruits," but "fruit," each sev- 
eral part being required to make the whole, to make the 
perfect fruit; the "fruit of the Spirit" (and therefore 
the fruit of Christ in us) "is love, joy, peace, long suf- 
fering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temper- 
ance." 

The branches bringing forth abundant fruit glorified 
the husbandman, in that they responded to his desires, 
and were a compensation for all the watch-care and labor 
he had bestowed upon them. The Christian bringing 
forth abundant fruit in character and service glorifies the 
Father, in that he thus responds to the Father's desire 
for fruitful children, and compensates him as the heav- 
enly husbandman for all the labor, grace, and providence 
he has bestowed upon them. 

The branch as it put forth its characteristic fruit bore 
witness not only to t'he vitality of the vine, but that it 
was following and fulfilling the law of that vine, meeting 
its every demand. The Christian who brings forth the 
fruit of Christ in his daily life, proves not only that he 
is a Christian, but a disciple of Christ, one who owns 
the law of the indwelling Christ, who seeks to follow 
him in all his ways and will ; and thus fruitfulness both 
glorifies God, the Father, and demonstrates the disciple- 
ship of those who make the claim of Christian. 

The husbandman who seeks the fruit from off the vine 
is not content with little; on the contrary he not only 
wants fruit, but much. To that end he seeks to keep 
the branches clean, drive away the little foxes that spoil 
the tender shoots, remove the insects that endeavor to 
find a lodgment there, cut all excrescences and prune 
to suit his will ; and does all this that each year he may 
have fruit, and have it more abundantly. 



; ABIDING IN CHRIST. 193 

No less does God demand fruit from those who pro- 
fess to be his children in union with his risen Son. He 
wants fruit, not less and less as the days go on, but more 
and more. 

As years add to the fruitfulness of the vine, so each 
succeeding year should add to the fruitfulness of Christ 
in Christians, not only in the display of the subjective 
characteristics of Christ, but in the objective value of his 
life in us as manifested in work and service in his name. 
To bring about this multiplied and abundant fruitful- 
ness he will by every means endeavor to cleanse us and 
cast out the sins that seek to find a lodgment in our lives. 
He will not hesitate to break off a leaf here, a twig there, 
or cut away what we may deem of vital importance to 
ourselves, but what he sees to be an excrescence upon, 
and a hindrance to, our spiritual development. He will 
not hesitate to purge us, make us suffer loss or pain, if, 
thereby happily, he may free us from every obstacle to 
our spiritual growth ; he will do anything if, by this, 
he may bring forth the fruit for which he so manifestly 
yearns. 

It is clear enough that without the vine the branch 
can do nothing. Take the branch away from the vine, 
it is utterly helpless and undone. Nor is the helpless- 
ness of the Christian apart from Christ less manifest. 
Without Christ, without conscious vital union with 
Christ, the Christian can do nothing either in bringing 
forth the fruit of the Spirit in his life, or the works and 
service which his profession demands. 

In order that the branch may bring forth fruit it must 
abide in the vine. But it must be evident that in rela- 
tion to the vine the branch has no volition either about 
its origin, or continuance. It is the vine that creates it. 



194 ABIDING IN CHRIST. 

It is the vine that holds it, and there is no power in itself 
considered, by which it may reject the vine or separate 
itself therefrom. If, however, there should any unclean- 
ness come upon the branch, that uncleanness would act 
as an obstacle to the life in the vine. The vine is sensi- 
tive. It will not flow into or over that which is unclean, 
it will withhold itself. As a consequence, the branch 
withers, shrivels, becomes dry, and although it may re- 
main outwardly in the vine, will show no vitality and 
bring forth no fruit in evidence of its claimed relation. 

No more than the branch in the vine is the Christian 
his own creation ; on the contrary, he is the creation of 
God in Christ of whom that vine is the symbol, as it is 
written: "If any man be in Christ he is a new creation;" 
and again : "We are his workmanship, created in Christ 
Jesus." It is equally true that as the branch cannot 
separate itself from the vine, neither can the Christian 
cut himself off from vital relation to Christ ; nor yet, and 
let it be said with reverence but firmness absolute, can 
God himself so separate him as to vital union, inasmuch 
as it is written: "He that is joined unto the Lord is one 
Spirit;" and it is evident that in such a relation there 
can be no final cleavage ; for there could be no point of 
incision where the knife would not touch the very ex- 
istence of God himself. 

In order then to get the full application of the truth, 
and not fall into error through a false apprehension of 
the figure, it must be recognized that the actual relation 
between Christ and those who are his stands higher 
than the one which the vine and the branches show ; that 
the vine and the branches show only the relation between 
Christ and those who are his while on the earth; that 
the essential relation lies higher than any figure or sym- 



ABIDING IN CHRIST. 195 

bol of nature can represent, a relation in which the be- 
liever is seen risen, ascended, and seated with Christ 
in heavenly places in him, on the very throne of God; 
planted not in earth as the vine is planted, but in heaven 
itself, rooted in the throne and purpose of God, above the 
vacillation of earth and time. Recognizing all this, rec- 
ognizing that there is a side in which, it is impossible for 
one who has ever really been joined to Christ to be sep- 
arated from him as to eternity and the world to come, 
either by his own volition or the will of God, yet it must 
be just as clearly recognized that there is also a side, the 
side of the earthly, outward walk, in which the believer 
may so separate himself from the vital power of Christ, 
that he shall bring forth no fruit, and his life as a pro- 
fessed Christian, be withered, shriveled, dead ; an out- 
ward profession in which he shall have no more con- 
sciousness of Christ, and, in the eyes of the world, no 
more life than the withered juiceless fruitless branches 
which the husbandman takes away and men gather up 
and burn in fire ; a profession in which it will be found 
that God had just as much cut him off and separated him 
from this actual consciousness, as when the husbandman 
takes away each branch that beareth not fruit ; taking him 
away and separating him from the fellowship and power 
of Christ because he brought forth no fruit in his name. 

And this condition arises because of some uncleanness 
of sin. It may be but a very small uncleanness, a deed, 
a word, a habit, a thought. These are sufficient to grieve 
the Spirit, and hinder his inflow through the Christian 
life. 

Abiding in Christ then means dwelling in Christ, rest- 
ing in Christ, making him the source and the environ- 
ment of our daily lives. And the method for this abiding 



196 ABIDING IN CHRIST. 

requires for its complement that the words of Christ shall 
dwell in us. That is to say, all that the words of Christ 
express, his mind, his thoughts, his desires, his will ; 
that we shall make these words of Christ, all he says to 
us, the supreme, the final authority in our lives; making 
them the rule of our faith and conduct, guiding our- 
selves, justifying ourselves, and therefore illuminating 
ourselves always, with a "thus saith the Lord." 

And as we thus abide in him and his words abide in 
us, we shall bring forth fruit, bring it forth abundantly to 
the demonstration of the indwelling Christ, and the glory 
of God, the Father. 

In the nature of the case withered branches, fruitless 
branches, are an encumbrance to the vine, a scandal to it, 
and in the eyes of men fit only for the fire. Nor can 
it be doubted that the Christian whose profession is a 
withered, shriveled profession, a profession that is con- 
spicuous by the absence of all that should characterize a 
Christian, is a scandal to Christ, to the church, to God, 
and, in the eyes of men, is as fully fit for the fire as the 
ungodly and the sinner; and if "men," as suggested in 
the text, were m'ade the judges, they would, no doubt, 
gather them as withered branches, and cast therein. 

In view of all this there are some soul searching ques- 
tions which we may each of us well ask ourselves : 

Am I abiding in Christ? Am I dwelling in him by 
faith? Am I resting in him as my life, my motive and 
my strength ? Am I keeping myself in the sphere of his 
influence and love? Am I depending wholly on him 
for all I have and am? Are his words abiding in me as 
the law of my life, the rule of my conduct, the definition 
of my duty, and the regulation of my desires? Am I 
showing forth the fruit of the Spirit? Am I making the 



ABIDING IN CHRIST. 197 

hearts of men to rejoice' and their faces to shine because 
of the union between Christ and myself? Am I demon- 
strating without controversy that I am a true disciple of 
Christ, and thus each day glorifying God ; or, am I a dry, 
withered, fruitless branch, bearing witness of nothing so 
much as that I am not abiding in Christ, nor his words 
abiding in me? 



CONSECRATION OF ABILITY. 



Consecration of Ability, 



Colossians tit : 23, 24. 



"Whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and 
not unto men ; knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive 
the reward of the inheritance: for ye serve the Lord 
Christ." 

The emphasized word of the text is, "do." "Whatso- 
ever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord." 

In order to be saved the sinner has nothing to "do," 
but once that he is saved he is always to "do." "Doing" 
is the intent and purpose of salvation. The character of 
this doing is set forth in the declaration: "Ye serve the 
Lord Christ." Service of Christ means doing things in 
the name of Christ and for him ; so doing that his name 
may be glorified and himself exalted both as Saviour 
and Lord. Any doing, no matter how good, that does 
not bring in the crucified and risen Christ before men as 
the personal Saviour of the soul and Lord over the ways 
of the individual life, is not the doing for which the 
Christian has been redeemed and saved. 

The Christian has been equipped for this characteristic 
doing. He has been equipped by the impartation of the 
nature of Christ, the indwelling of the Holy Ghost, the 
gifts he brings, and that Providence which opens the 
ways, and creates the opportunities for the doing re- 
quired. As Christians we are under obligation to be 
doing, not only by reason of this equipment, but because 
we are no longer our own. 

We have been bought with a price, a price paid by the 
Lord himself, told out and paid in good round drops of 
reddest blood in the agony of his cross; a price paid 



201 



202 CONSECRATION OF ABILITY. 

and purchased claimed, which God the Father has owned 
in the triple fact that He raised him from the dead, 
seated him at his right hand, and sent down the Holy 
Ghost in His name to dwell in the bodies purchased by 
his blood; a purchase that thus sealed makes us before 
God and man, body, soul and spirit, his, his property, 
his slaves, and therefore under obligation to be doing in 
his name. 

Nor does the objective of the Christian service vary. 
It must be always, as to the Lord. Not unto self, self 
has no place in the vision of a slave; nor yet, unto men, 
a slave must know only one man, one person, his master 
and Lord. 

"As to the Lord," that is the watchword, that must be 
the objective; and this objective kept before the mind of 
the servant will clear the sky of every doubt and take 
away the conflicting concepts of duty that so often per- 
plex the path. "As to the Lord," stamped upon any 
work however small however simple will exalt it, dig- 
nify it, and make it a part of the throne and purpose of 
God, 

The value of service depends upon its mode or manner, 
as well as objective. All Christian service must be not 
only unto the Lord but heartily unto him, even as it is 
written: "Whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the 
Lord." Heartily, that is the centre and core of exhorted 
Christian doing. 

Doing all we do in his name, and for him, so that we 
shall do nothing but what is done for him, but doing all 
this heartily. There is no other way in which to do any 
service. 

Be the service what it may, failure is written in large 
letters over every attempt that is not inspired by a whole 



CONSECRATION OF ABILITY. 203 

heart. To say that a man lacks heart in his work is to 
say that his work is doomed. A man's heart is himself; 
he who would accomplish anything must put his heart 
into it, so that every beat of that heart shall be like the 
stroke of a hammer, driving the purpose deeper and 
deeper into the work. 

The men who have achieved anything in the world are 
the men who have put their heart into their work, given 
themselves up to it, so that each time they did a thing it 
was felt that the beat of their heart was in it. The 
Greek used here lets in light, the word rendered 
''heartily" is "soul," so that the exhortation is, really, to 
do all that is done "from the soul." The men who have 
succeeded have done so, because they did their work 
from the core and centre of their being. They took the 
concept of it past all the outer lines of selfhood, deep 
down into the very citadel of self, down into the very soul, 
showed it to the soul, got its approval, stamped soul on 
it, and henceforth put soul into the work; so that the 
work in the end became the concrete of their soul, the 
epitome of their life; in other words, the work stood 
forth as the expression of their heart and all that was 
in them. 

Nor can service for Christ, service that means any- 
thing, be done in any other way. Says the Apostle : 
"This one thing I do." It is the key thought of his life 
matched by that other imperial phrase: "For me to live 
is Christ;" and the life he lived, the service he gave, the 
work he accomplished, all respond to, and justify his 
wholeheartedness. To serve Christ with less than a 
whole heart, with less than full purpose, with any 
measure of reservation of self, is not only to contradict 
the power of service in us and shamefully deny the re- 



204 CONSECRATION OF ABILITY. 

demption price paid, but also to commit spiritual suicide. 
The Christian who does not give himself up wholly to 
serve Christ does not get the benefit of the divine power 
in his own soul, does not reap the satisfaction of self- 
respect for honest work, and fails to reach the heights of 
intimate fellowship with him in whose name he serves. 

Who is it that draws nigh to the Master, looks him in 
the face, suns himself in his smile, and is assured of his 
love? 

Is it that servant who does his work half-heartedly, 
or he who serves wholeheartedly out of the depths of the 
soul? Who is the Christian conscious of blessing and 
the joy of salvation? Is it that Christian who gives him- 
self up, body, soul, and spirit, or that Christian who holds 
back, divides his duty, and gives a service made of frac- 
tions? 

There is no need to ask, and certainly there is no need 
to answer the question. The truth is self-evident. The 
half-hearted Christian is as a stranger before the Lord, 
and walks in vain show, carrying the name and burden 
of a profession without an inspiration. Nor is this all: 
for, in the prophet Jeremiah xlviii : 10, it is written : 
"Cursed be everyone who doeth the work of the Lord de- 
ceitfully." The margin renders it, "negligently," that is 
to say, half-heartedly. 

The sound of a curse lingers in the shadow of half- 
heartedness. And Moses, the great law-giver, adds to 
the warning in Numbers xxxii: 23: "Be sure your sin 
will find you out." He is speaking to the children of the 
tribes of Reuben and Gad. 

By this he would say that if they did not give them- 
selves up wholly and full-heartedly to the work of the 
Lord to which he had called them in the Promised 



CONSECRATION OF ABILITY. 205 

Land, their half-heartedness would be a sin against the 
Lord, would find them out and betray them at the last. 

"Be sure your sin will find you out," is what the Lord 
is saying to every Christian now who does not give him- 
self up with a whole heart to his service. 

It will find him out here in the darkness and blunder- 
ing in his spiritual life, and in all the suffering of soul 
that comes to a Christian not in the fullness of com- 
munion with Christ; in all the weakness, failure and 
shame, that attend upon the pathway of one not walking 
in the power of the indwelling Spirit, betraying him to 
himself, to the bitterness of his own conscience, and the 
merciless judgment of others; and it will betray him at 
the Judgment Seat of Christ in that hour when he shall 
see himself missing the crown he might have had, and 
that crown going to another, not because that other was 
better equipped, but because he gave himself up to do 
as unto the Lord, and to do it heartily: he consecrated 
his ability. 

Consecrated ability. 

That is the thing to which we are called, not the conse- 
cration of our ability but, rather, the consecration of our- 
selves to the divine ability in us, giving ourselves up to 
be possessed and used by the power which the Lord has 
so freely put within us. 

Who can measure the result of such a consecration? 
Some one has said: "The world yet waits to see what a 
man or woman fully given up to God can do." The an- 
swer is simple enough. 

Such an one could do all that God required of him; 
and if each Christian did the same, the glory of God would 
break out in the earth and illumine it to the farthest stars. 

Such service has its reward. 



206 CONSECRATION OF ABILITY. 

Reward here in the unspeakable experience of Christ 
in the soul. Reward yonder at the Judgment Seat of 
Christ where the consecrated Christian shall receive the 
crown that fadeth not away, hear the welcome words 
"Well done," be invited to a special reception in the 
palace of the King, and enter into the "Joy of the Lord." 

The guaranty of the reward both as to the giving and 
the quality of it is revealed in the simple but sublime 
phrase: "Ye serve the Lord Christ." When you have 
taken these two names, Lord, Christ, set them before you 
as a title and have recognized that this title signifies 
that all the fullness of the Godhead bodily dwells in him 
whom we serve, you get indeed the guaranty of the 
reward, and the assurance that its worth and splendor 
shall be equal to the glory of the giver. 

The blessedness of the reward lies in the tender fact 
that it will be given by the Lord himself, by his own dear 
hands. 

Behold him yonder on the exalted throne, "The Man 
in The Glory," the Alpha and Omega, the All in All, his 
face shining in love, his hands outstretched and full of 
gifts. 

Behold him, and while you gaze at the gifts in his 
hand, let your eyes take in the vision of the nail prints 
there, nails by which the handwriting of sin, of Satan 
and death against us, was cancelled, and say in the light 
of this wonder of grace and love what you will do, and 
how you will do it, while the voice of the Apostle is heard 
ringing this exhortation in your ears: "Whatsoever ye 
do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men; 
knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of 
the inheritance: for ye serve the Lord Christ." 

What shall it be, whole-hearted, or half-hearted ser- 
vice for Christ? 



THE SABBATH. 



Cbe Sabbatb. 



i. The original Sabbath was not given as a command. 
Reasons : 

a. Because, considered as a day of rest, the Sabbath is 
for those who have labored. 

Up to that time man had not labored. 
He had no need of rest, nor of a rest day. 
If he had not sinned, he never would have labored. 
•The Sabbath therefore, originally, had no place for 
man as a command. 

b. Because, the only person who rested on the first 
Sabbath was God himself. 

God did not rest in the day because he had need of 
recuperation from toil. 

If God rested in the day at all, it was a moral and 
declarative rest. 

But God did not rest in the day, as a day; he rested in 
the man whom he had created. 

We always rest in the last thing we do; the last thing 
we do, is the place both of outward and inward rest, rest 
of mind and body. 

The last thing God made was man. 

In man God rested, on the seventh day. 

The seventh day has the sacramental number seven to 
qualify it; seven is the number of completion; man was 
the completion, the completion of creation; in the man, 
on that day, God rested. 

The first Sabbath therefore has nothing to do with 
the rest of man, but, of God. 

The first Sabbath, by so much, cannot be a command to 
the man. 

209 



210 THE SABBATH. 

c. Because, after man sinned God could not rest in 
man. 

He could not rest in any mere day out of man; for, 
God's rest was not a rest from weariness but a moral 
rest. 

As God could not rest in any mere day after man's 
sin, He could not command man to rest in any day; He 
could not command him to rest where all was the unrest 
of sin. 

Thus the Sabbath was not a command either before or 
after the Fall. 

d. Because, God could not rest in a creation marred 
by sin. 

God cannot command man to rest where he cannot 
rest. 

Hence, even, if the first Sabbath had been a command 
before the Fall, it could not be a command after the Fall. 

To sum up the reasons why the first Sabbath was not 
given as a command: 

Before the Fall man had no need of physical rest. 

After the Fall he had no place of moral rest; and God 
cannot give a command that has in it no moral signifi- 
cance. 

Man's sin broke up both the moral rest of God and 
man. 

Sin set both God and man to work. 

"In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread." Gen- 
esis iii : 19. 

"My father worketh hitherto, and I work." John v: 

17- 

Thus the First Sabbath looked at in any wise has no 
place as a command to man. 

It was simply a declaration of God's moral rest in man. 



THE SABBATH. 211 

It was God's creation rest in man. 

2. The Sabbath was first given as a command nearly 
two thousand years later to the children of Israel; and 
only given to them after the Exodus. 

"Wherefore I caused them to go forth out of the land 
of Egypt, and brought them into the wilderness : 

Moreover also, 1 gave: them my sabbaths, to be a 
sign BETWEEN ME and THEM. Ezekiel xx : 10, 12. 

3. The Sabbath was given to the children of Israel as 
a memorial of creation, that the children of Israel might 
know that their Redeemer was also the Creator and Ruler 
of the universe. 

4. The Sabbath was given only after the blood of the 
passover lamb had been shed, and the people by an out- 
stretched hand of poiver had been typically brought into 
the place of resurrection on the other side of the Red Sea. 
By this God would teach that he could not find creation 
rest in this world; that his rest in relation to this earth 
henceforth must be on the basis of sacrifice ; that he 
could rest only in a man who should shed his blood and 
rise from the dead. That henceforth his rest must be 
Redemption Rest. And therefore, and never forget it, 
he gives the first command to keep the Sabbath, AFTER 
THE blood. 

THE sabbath AFTER THE blood ; that is the Sabbath 
that was given as a command. That first Sabbath rest 
of God after the Fall was the Rest of Redemption, re- 
demption by blood. 

5. The Sabbath was given to Israel as a covenant 
between them and God, that they might know he was the 
Lord. 

"A sign between me and them, that they might know 
that I am the Lord." Ezekiel xx: 12. 



212 THE SABBATH. 

6. Those who violated the Sabbath were under the 
penalty of death. 

A man who gathered sticks was stoned to death. 
Numbers xv: 32-41. 

In this incident there is, in passing, a profound spir- 
itual lesson. 

Gathering sticks is manifesting works. 

Works can bring in death only to the imperfect man. 

Life is to be found without works by resting where 
God rests, in the blood oe redemption, in the man 
who has brought in redemption through blood. 

7. The Sabbath was never given to any other nation 
but Israel. 

"Speak thou also unto the children of Israel, saying, 
verily my Sabbaths shall ye keep : for it is a sign between 
me and you throughout your generations. 

A sign between me and The children 0E israee eor- 
EVER." Exodus xxxi: 13-16. 

8. The Sabbath was never given to the Gentile world. 
The world never has been, and is not now, commanded 

to keep the Sabbath day. 

And this ought to be self evident. 

The Sabbath was only for a people separated from the 
world and brought nigh to God. 

It was not for a world far off in sin, a world that knew 
not God, nor his statutes. 

It is as absurd and spiritually illogical to ask a world 
dead in trespass and in sin to keep the Sabbath, as it 
would be to exhort a dead man to bring forth the evi- 
dences of life ; or to ask an unregenerated man to bring 
forth the fruit of the Spirit. 

9. The Church of Christ is not commanded to keep 
the Sabbath. 



THE SABBATH. 213 

The fact that the Sabbath has been given exclusively 
to Israel would be reason and argument enough; but 
there are many, and cogent reasons. 

a. Because, the Sabbath is a part of the Law. 
To be under the Sabbath is to be under the Law. 
But the Church is positively not under the Law. 
''For ye are not under the law." Romans vi: 14. 

b. Because, the Sabbath is the day of A dkad christ. 
It was on the Sabbath that Jesus lay dead in the tomb. 
T® keep the Sabbath is to memorialize his silence, and 

his dead body, still in the tomb. 

The Church does not stand for a dead Christ. 

The Church stands for a Christ risen from the dead. 

To keep the Sabbath is to join hands with the un- 
believing Jew, and seek, with the seals of Rome, to keep 
the Saviour of the world in the cerements of the grave. 

c. Because, the Sabbath was a memorial of the old 
creation under doom. 

But the Church stands for a New Creation freed 
from doom. 

d. Because, Christ did not rise from the dead on the 
Sabbath. 

To keep the Sabbath is to deny the resurrection of 
Christ. 

Those who keep the Sabbath are saying every moment 
by their attitude : "He is here (here in the tomb), he is not 
risen." 

e. Because, the Sabbath has to do with the ceremonial 
law, with Aaron and all earthly priesthood. 

But the Church of Christ has nothing to do with the 
Aaronic, or Levitical priesthood; the Church has to do 
alone with the Melchizedeck priesthood of Christ in 
heaven. 



214 THB SABBATH. 

f. Because, the Sabbath has to do with the man on the 
earth, and not with the man in heaven. 

But the Church is linked up with the man in heaven, 
and not with the man on earth ; the Church is called, not 
to dwell in earthly places, but with the risen One in 
heavenly places. 

g. Because, the Sabbath is made for a man in the 
flesh- 
But the standing of the Church and every Christian, 

is not in the flesh at all, but in the Spirit. 

h. Because, the Sabbath has to do with the First man, 
Adam. 

But the Church has to do exclusively with the Second 
man, Christ. 

For these reasons, and the principles they include, the 
Church is never commanded to keep the Sabbath. 

10. After his Resurrection, Christ and his disciples 
never met on the Sabbath. 

If the Sabbath had been intended for the Church, the 
Church would have met on that day. 

ii. The Church met to worship, to break bread, on 
the First day of the week. 

"And upon the first day of the week, when the dis- 
ciples came together to break bread." Acts xx: 7. 

Each time therefore that the Church met under Apos- 
tolic ordination it denied the Sabbath as the day of the 
Church; and it denied it too, not after the Roman heresy 
had come in, but long before, centuries before, and under 
Apostolic authority. 

12. So far from keeping the Sabbath, Christians are 
directly commanded not to keep it. 

"Let no man therefore judge (rule, command, au- 
thorize) you in respect of the Sabbath." Colossians 
ii: 16. 



THE SABBATH. 215 

Read the context and you will see that these are or- 
dinances in relation to the earth and to an earthly people; 
but the Christian has passed through the judgment with 
Christ, he has been baptized into his death, he has taken 
part with him in the resurrection; yea, he has ascended 
with him into heavenly places above the law and ordi- 
nances of the earth; and therefore, in the next chapter, in 
the opening verse, he is exhorted to seek the things that 
are above, to recognize himself as in the heavens with the 
risen Christ. 

To such a person the keeping of the Sabbath would 
indeed be a coming down to the earth and the plane of 
the flesh; it would be selling the birthright of a Son 
of God for a mess of pottage. 

Raised up with Christ, and in Him taken to the heaven- 
ly places outside the realm of the law, the Christian in 
the very nature of the case has nothing to do with the 
Sabbath. 

But further, the context shows that the system of law 
and ordinances of which the Sabbath was a part were 
against us, and that Christ has blotted out their hand- 
writing and nailed them to the cross. 

As it is written: 

"Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was 
against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out 
of the: way, nailing it to his cross." v. 14. 

In the far East when a mortgage is to be cancelled, it 
is taken and nailed up over the door of the house and 
then blotted out, made illegible; so that every passer-by 
may know that it no longer has any claim on the inmate. 

Precisely so, in that far day on the cross, the Son of 
God for us men and our salvation, took this law and all 
its ordinances of condemnation and restriction, and 



216 TUB SABBATH. 

nailed them to his cross, blotting them out in the blood 
which, answering to every demand of justice against us, 
cries, "It is finished." 

That old law and that old Sabbath are crucified to 
every Christian, and buried in the grave of Jesus Christ, 
from whence we have risen with him in the liberty of 
the Spirit and of life, above all ordinances for the flesh. 

Looking at that law, looking at that Sabbath ordi- 
nance which, was a part of it, seeing them nailed together 
on the cross of Christ and marred, blotted by his stream- 
ing blood, we cry: 

"Cancelled, cancelled by the blood." 

To those who have been immersed in the name of 
Christ there ought to be no possibility of misapprehen- 
sion. 

"Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen 
with him." v. 12. 

Dead. 

Buried. 

Risen. 

Ascended. 

Seated with Christ in heavenly places. 

To keep the Sabbath is to deny all this; to deny that 
we are risen with Christ; to affirm that we are under the 
ministration and bond of death. 

13. The Sabbath is the Seventh day, not the First. 
Nothing can be more unscriptural, and nothing can be 

more dishonoring to the Word in nomenclature, than to 
speak of the Sabbath under such titles as "The European 
Sabbath," "The American Sabbath," "The New Testa- 
ment Sabbath." 

14. The Sabbath was never changed from the Seventh 
day to the First. 



THE SABBATH. 217 

In the nature of the case there is no such record in 
the word of God. 

15. The Children of Israel will yet keep the Sabbath 
in their own land. 

"And they shall hallow my Sabbaths." Ezekiel xliv: 
24. 

"There remaineth therefore a rest" (margin: Sabbath 
keeping) "to the people of God" (Hebrews, to whom this 
epistle is written). Hebrews iv: 9. 

16. The First day of the week is the day to be ob- 
served by the Church. 

The proof has already been seen in the fact that the 
Apostolic Church met on the First day of the week to 
"break bread." 

17. The First day of the week is called the Lord's day. 
A day made and set apart by the Lord for himself. 
"The Lord's Day." Revelation i: 10. 

"This is the day the Lord hath made; we will rejoice 
and be glad in it." Ps. cxviii: 24. 

Beginning at the twenty-second verse the Psalm reads: 

"The stone which, the builders refused is become the 
headstone of the corner." 

"This is the Lord's doing; it is marvellous in our eyes." 

The stone is Christ. 

The builders are the Jews. 

The stone refused, is Christ rejected by the Jews. 

Become the headstone of the corner, is Christ raised 
from the dead after his rejection. 

The Lord's doing so marvellous in their eyes, rather, 
marvellous in the eyes of the prophetic remnant that is 
seen in this Psalm, is the mighty act of God whereby he 
raised his son from the dead. 

This day is the day of the "marvellous" doing. 



218 THE SABBATH, 

That marvellous doing is the lifting of the rejected 
stone into the place of the corner in the building of God ; 
and as that is resurrection, then the day is the day of 
resurrection; as the resurrection day was the First day 
of the week, then this day the Lord hath "made," "the 
day of his marvellous doing," is the First day of the week ; 
and as the Lord hath made the day ; as the Psalmist dis- 
tinctly states that the Lord made it ; and as whatever the 
Lord makes is his, then this day, this day of the raising 
up of the stone (for it had to be raised up before it could 
become the headstone of the corner), this day is the 
Lord's day; and as the First day of the week and the day 
of the raising up of the stone are identical, and this iden- 
tical day is the First day of the week, then the First day 
of the week is The: Lord's day; and as the Psalmist 
speaking by the Spirit commands those who love the 
Lord to rejoice and be glad in it ; and as a command to re- 
joice and be glad in that day is the recognition of the day 
above all other days, then as the Christian Church 
stands for love to the Lord, it follows that the Church, 
every Christian, is commanded to keep the First day 
of the week as the Lord's day. 

The First day of the week is anticipated in the Old 
Testament as the "eighth day ;" as the day "after the 

SABBATH." 

"Ye shall bring a sheaf of the first fruits of 
your harvest unto the priest; And he shall wave the 
sheaf before the Lord, to be accepted for you : on the 
morrow AFTER The sabbath the priest shall wave it." 
Leviticus xxiii : 10, n. 

Let it be remembered that when the priest "waved" the 
sheaf he lifted it from the ground where it had been 
lying and raised it up before God. 



THE SABBATH. 219 

In the light of this read I Corinthians xv : 20. 

"Now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the: 
First Fruits/' 

And when did Christ rise from the dead and become 
the first fruits but on "the morrow after the sab- 
bath ?" 

"In the end OF THE sabbath, as it began to dawn 
toward the First day of the week. Matthew xxviii : I. 

Thus in the book of Leviticus, in the book of the 
Psalms, the resurrection of Christ is anticipated and the 
day of the resurrection declared as plainly as language 
can declare it, to be the First day of the week, the Lord's 
Day. 

18. The First day of the week is a witness to the 
Church of the resurrection of Christ and Christians. 

19. The First day of the zveek is the witness of Re- 
demption achieved. 

20. The First day of the week is the memorial of the 
beginning of a New Creation of God. 

The Sabbath stood for the completion and, at the 
same time, for the End of the old creation ; the First day 
of the week stands for the beginning of a new Cre- 
ation and, at the same time, for the consummation, the 
completion, and the glory of the New. 

21. The First day of the week links the Christian to 

THE MAN IN THE GLORY and to the INHERITANCE IN THE 
HEAVENLY PLACES." 

22. The First day of the zveek links him to the un- 
failing intercession of the heavenly priesthood. 

And now mark the contrast between the Sabbath and 
the Lord's Day. 

The Sabbath stands for, 
The Earth. 



220 THE SABBATH. 

Flesh. 

Man in sin. 

Man under Law. 

Man under doom. 

Man under sentence of death. 

Man, the sentenced criminal, bound up with the old 
creation on which is the curse of God. 

A dead Christ?. 

Death; nothing but death. Aye! the penalty for its 
violation has never for a moment been suspended. 

But look at the Lord's Day 

It stands for, 

Heaven. 

Spirit. 

Man in Christ. 

Man above Law. 

Man in Grace. 

Man in Life. 

Man in the New Creation. 

Glory. 

Eternity of Blessing. 

Put the two days side by side and lo! THE grave of 

CHRIST IS BETWEEN THEM. 

The Sabbath is on this side OE The grave. 

The Lord's Day is on the other side oe the grave. 

The Sabbath is on this side of the grave and knows 

NOTHING OE THE RESURRECTION. 

The Lord's Day is on the other side of the grave and, 
thank God! knows that it is empty, and that the 

MAN WHO LAY IN IT ON THE SABBATH DAY HAS RISEN 
JDUT OE IT. 

Ah! the one day, the Sabbath, is as midnight. 
The other day, the Lord's Day, is as mid-noon. 



THB SABBATH. 221 

Those who teach the Sabbath substitute Law fdr 
Grace, Moses for Christ, works for Faith, Earth for 
Heaven, the Old Creation for the New, a Dead Christ 
for a Living Christ. 

To teach the Sabbath as obligatory either to the 
Church or the world, is to be guilty of perverting the 
Word of God ; and in the light of that Word, proving 
a blindness and spiritual darkness without excuse. 

Let us turn then to the First Day of the week and 
prize it as never before, saying with the inspired 
Psalmist : 

This is the day which the Lord hath made ; we will re- 
joice and be glad in it." 



GENESIS: FOURTH AND FIFTH, 



Genesis : fourth and YMfa 



In the beginning. 
— Gen. i: i. 



GENESIS FOURTH. 

While this chapter sets forth the way of Cain and 
the way of Abel, it might properly be called the "Way 
of Cain, or the Fruit of the Flesh." 

The chapter is introduced by Eve's mistake. 

In the first verse we find she bears a son, and when 
he is born says: "I have gotten a man from the Lord." 
Properly rendered, she would say : "I have gotten a 
man, EVKN the Lord." 

This shows that : 

i. Eve understood the seed promised in the third 
chapter to mean a divine son. 

2. She believed Cain to be that divine son. 

3. She believed that through him she would gain the 
victory over Satan in this world. 

4. We thus learn that the promised seed in its full 
import meant a son whose father is God, and whose 
mother is a woman ; hence, a divine-human son, Son of 
Man and Son of God. In this suggestion we catch the 
first gleams of the Star of Bethlehem and the outlines 
of the Virgin Mother. 

This is properly the Introduction to the chapter. 
In verse third we have : 
Cain's Offering. 
In making this offering note : 

1. That Cain denied any difference between himself 
and God, 

«*5 



226 GENESIS FOURTH AND FIFTH. 

2. Denied that death as a judgment and sentence of 
God was upon him. 

3. Denied that death must be met and cancelled be- 
fore he could be accepted of God. 

4. Denied that he was a fallen man needing to be 
reconciled to God by the death of a substitute. 

5. Repudiated the idea that the ground was cursed. 

6. Testified, on the contrary, that the ground was 
good, that the fruit of that ground was acceptable unto 
God. 

Now there are those who teach that: 

1. There is no distance, morally, between the natural 
man and God. 

They deny that man has ever been driven out of God's 
presence, or that he is a fallen being. 

2. Deny that death is a penal infliction, the witness 
of God's judgment against man. 

3. Do not believe death's claim must be met be- 
fore God by the death of a victim, a substitute. 

4. Deny that human nature is under the curse. 

5. On the contrary, they teach that human nature is 
inherently good, and that by culture, man can bring out 
of it fruit acceptable unto God. 

6. They offer this fruit unto God in the form of good 
works, good character. 

It is the way of Cain. 

There are some facts in this story which are indis- 
putable. 

1. The ground out of which Cain took his offering 
had been judged and cursed of God. 

2. In offering the fruit of the ground Cain offered 
that which God had judged and condemned. 

3. In offering that which God had condemned Cain 
denied the word of God and trampled under foot His 
testimony. 



GENESIS FOURTH AND FIFTH. 227 

The application of the facts to the doctrine is plain 
enough : human nature like the ground under Cain's feet 
has been judged of God, condemned and set aside. 

See : Genesis vi : 17, Romans vii : 18, Romans viii : 
8, Romans viii : 13, Romans iii : 20, I Corinthians ii : 
14, Romans viii : 7. 

God has set aside the seed of Adam, the flesh. 

In offering God our own righteousness, our own good 
deeds, our mere human goodness, we deny God's judg- 
ment, trample it under foot, and insult Him ; insult Him 
because we offer Him that which He has Himself con- 
demned and refused. 

From all this it follows that every self-righteous man 
is a contradiction to God, and every self-righteous man 
is walking in the way of Cain. 

In verse four you have by way of contrast, the offering 
of Abel : That offering, a slain lamb. A great contrast 
to Cain's offering in respect to aesthetics. Considered 
from that point of view it is altogether repulsive. 

By offering the lamb Abel confessed: 

1. That he believed there was a difference, morally, 
between himself and God. 

2. That death was a judgment of God against him. 

3. That this judgment was just and that as a sinner 
he ought to die. 

4. By offering a lamb he confessed that his only hope 
before God was in a substitute to take his place. 

5. He believed that God could accept this slain lamb 
as his substitute, because he had been taught the doctrine 
by his parents in the story of how God had provided 
them a covering, i. e., an atonement in the coats of skins 
at Eden's gates, through the death of a selected victim. 

6. Abel therefore offered the lamb as a sacrifice and 
a substitute unto God. 



228 GENESIS FOURTH AND FIFTH. 

7. In thus offering the lamb, he owned the judgment, 
the justice and, at the same time, the grace of God in 
providing for him a way of escape ; in offering it he took 
God at His word and glorified Him. 

In verses four and five we have God's attitude in re- 
spect to the two offerings. He rejects Cain and accepts 
Abel. What is the reason? 

The ordinary reason is given that Cain was a bad man, 
and Abel a good man. 

The true answer is, that "Abel offered a more excellent 
sacrifice than Cain." This is officially given in Hebrews 
xi: 4. 

The difference then was not in the men ; they were both 
sons of fallen parents, both were outside of Eden, both 
were on cursed ground, and both under sentence of 
death. 

The difference was not in the men, the difference was 
in what they offered. 

The great radical difference between them was, the 

BLOOD OF A LAMB. 

Cain was rejected because he approached God without 
the blood of the lamb ; Abel was accepted because he 
approached God with the blood of the lamb. 

Remember then that the difference of acceptance or 
rejection before God, all turns on the question of the 

BLOOD OF THE LAMB. 

This was the difference between Cain and Abel ; this 
was the difference between the Egyptians and the Chil- 
dren of Israel on the night of the Passover; it is the 
difference between all who have ever been saved and lost 
up to this hour; it will be the difference between those 
who are saved and lost at last; it is the difference be- 
tween Heaven and Hell. 

In verses six and seven you have; 



GBNBSIS FOURTH AND FIFTH. 229 

CAIN'S OPPORTUNITY. 

From this text as it appears in the Version some have 
imagined the doctrine clearly taught that to do well is 
all God requires of any man; but a right rendering of 
the verse takes away all shadow of ground for such 
error. 

According to a strict translation the passage would 
read : "If thou oflerest well, shalt thou not be accepted?" 
Proof of this as the right rendering is to be found in 
Hebrews xi : 4. Cain's offering was not acceptable. God 
•says to him : "Your offering is not right, make it right 
and you shall be accepted." 

Now note the expression : "Sin lieth at the door." In 
the Hebrew, the word for sin — is "sin-offering," and 
lieth is, "crouching;" wherefore the Lord says: "Flocks 
of sheep and goats are crouching at the tent door; go 
get one of these and bring and offer it for a sin-offering 
as Abel did and, like him, be accepted." 

Thus, God, the Lord, preaches the Gospel to him ; He 
says : "Behold the sin-offering, that is what I want, not 
your flowers and fruit. I want the sin-offering, and it 
is right there, right at your very door easy to obtain; 
it is already crouching at your hand, take it and offer 
it to me, and I will accept you even as I have accepted 
Abel." 

This was Cain's opportunity; if he had seized it what 
a different epilogue might have been written upon his 
life. 

This is the opportunity to-day. God says to man : "I 
do not want your flowers and fruit. I do not want the 
works of your flesh, no matter how good, I want the sin- 
offering ; bring me that and I will accept you. And you 
need have no trouble to get it, behold it is at the door, 



2 3 o GENESIS FOURTH AND FIFTH. 

yea it is nigh thee, in thy mouth, the word of faith which 
we preach; that is, Jesus is the sin-offering provided 
by my grace, offer Him unto me by faith — and I will 
accept you ; confess Him crucified and risen from the 
dead for you, and you shall be saved." (See Romans x, 
6-10.) 

And this is the issue of the hour. God is calling upon 
all men everywhere to submit to His righteousness, by 
offering up the Divine Sin-offering. 

In verse eight, we have : 



CAIN'S CRIME: MURDER. 

In the United States alone, in four years, there were 
40,000 murders. 

Think of it. 

But in this crime of Cain, we have a type of the crime 
of the Jew against his Lord. 

Cain is the type of the Jew, Abel, of Jesus. Proof of 
this may be found by reading Hebrews xii : 24. 

Here the blood of Jesus is contrasted to that of Abel ; 
the blood of Abel cried aloud from the ground for judg- 
ment. The blood of Jesus speaks from the Mercy-seat 
in Heaven for better things, for grace towards the sin- 
ner. 

Now the point common to Jesus and Abel is the fact 
that both were slain, and their deaths the results of 
fratricidal blows : this commonalty is the basis of the 
type. 

Abel slain by his brother after the flesh, is a type of 
Jesus slain by His brother after the flesh, that is by the 
Jew. And that the Jew is intended in this contrast is 
evident from the fact that it occurs in the Epistle to the 



GENESIS FOURTH AND FIFTH. 231 

Hebrews, an epistle written especially to the Jews; it 
sets forth the idea that although the blood of Christ was 
upon the people even as they invoked it according to 
Matthew xxvii : 25, it was not upon them for judgment 
but for grace. 

Thus in Cain killing his brother Abel, you have a 
picture of the Jew killing his divinely-sent Brother, 
Jesus. 

In verses 11-15, you have: 



CAIN'S PUNISHMENT. 

The story of Cain's punishment confirms the thought 
that Cain is a type of the Jew. Note : 

1. He was driven from his home. 

2. He could get nothing from tilling the ground. 

3. He was to be a wanderer on the face of the 
earth. 

4. A mark was to be put upon him by the Lord, that 
all the world might know him. 

5. All hands were to be against him. 

6. Although punished of God, God would punish 
those who killed him. 

See how wonderfully these characteristics have been 
fulfilled in the Jew. 

1. Forty years after the crucifixion the Jew is driven 
out of his own land. 

2. He has never succeeded in tilling the ground, he 
has never succeeded as a farmer. 

3. For twenty centuries he has been a wanderer on 
the face of the earth. 

4. For twenty centuries he has been so marked by 
the hand of God, that no matter among what nation he 



232 GENESIS FOURTH AND FIFTH. 

may dwell, he cannot hide himself, a Jew is known on 
sight everywhere. 

5. All hands were to be against him. 
Deuteronomy xxviii : 64-66 ; Leviticus xxvi : 36-39 ; 

Deuteronomy xxviii : 27-37 ; Jeremiah xxiv : 9. 

6. While God punishes him, He will punish all who 
maltreat him. 

Jeremiah xxx : 1 1 ; Zechariah ii : 8. 

All history is in evidence of this. Nations persecuting 
him have passed away, he remains. 

A fearful retribution yet awaits European nations on 
account of him. (See Matthew xxv: 31, 32, 40.) 

In verses 16-24, we have : 



CAIN'S CIVILIZATION. 

1. He called the land into which he was banished 
the land of Nod; he simply called it after himself; that 
is to say, Nod signifies a "Vagabond;" this is what he 
now was before God, a wanderer, a vagabond ; hence, 
in calling the land, the land of Nod, he was calling it 
after himself, i. e., the land of th£ vagabond. 

2. He founded a city and called it after the name of 
his son, and thus set up his own name in him. He was 
seeking to perpetuate his name and establish himself in 
a world where God had condemned him to be a wanderer. 

Through his family he set up music, art, industry. 

With his civilization came polygamy, murder, and 
violence. 

Thus the civilization which Cain established was com- 
posed of: 

A city, 
A society, 



GENESIS FOURTH AND FIFTH. 233 

Music, 

Art, 

Manufactures, 

Polygamy, and 

Murder. 

And mark you, this civilization, this culture of the 
world, this filling it with music, art and beauty, as well 
as with industry, this embellishing the world and making 
it a place to live in, this civilization, originated with a 
murderer, and was set up by him only after he had been 
banished from the Presence of God. 

Is not all this a vivid picture of man turning his back 
on God and seeking to make a place for himself in a 
world where God has condemned him to be but a passing 
shadow ? 

Is it not true that to-day his is a civilization that is 
formed wholly outside of God, independently of him? 

And now notice a deep moral meaning in the signifi- 
cant expression of the twelfth verse : 

"When thou tillest the ground it shall not, henceforth, 
yield unto thee her strength." 

Considered morally, the earth represents human na- 
ture, and no matter how much man might build cities, 
and establish luxury, or fine arts, he would never suc- 
ceed in establishing a perfect society. Just as the earth 
would fail and come short of full fruitage, so society 
would fail to reach the place of perfect strength. 

Statesmen have labored, patriots have died, but man 
has not yet attained a stable society. Look at the 40,000 
murders in four years in this country, and 25,000 di- 
vorces in one year. 

Think of the corruption that walks abroad in the day- 
light, then think of the sin out of sight that beggars 



234 GENESIS FOURTH AND FIFTH. 

description. Remember that the whole earth is one vast 
military camp, and that in this city alone 10,000 men 
day and night are patrolling our streets lest violence 
break out among us as a fire, an earthquake, or a wild 
beast. 

Note all this, and you will see that the tillage of the 
earth has not brought forth the harvest of a perfect, nor 
even satisfying civilization. 

Note the final contrast between Cain and Abel. 

Cain founds a city and gathers to himself all the com- 
forts of the world. Abel is seen to the last as a worship- 
per of God, and taken up with the care of sheep. 

Are not these contrasts suggestive of the worldling 
and the follower of God, the man in the flesh and the 
man in the Spirit? 

The man in the flesh lives in. the world and for it, the 
follower of God worships God. God is the End and Ob- 
ject of his way, he is occupied with the sheep of the 
Lord's flock. He finds fellowship not in the society 
which is built and embellished by a Cain, but with those 
who are the Lord's. His inheritance and abiding are not 
here, he is ja pilgrim and a stranger, looking for a city 
which has foundations, whose maker and builder is God. 

In verse 25, you have: 



ANOTHER SEED. 

Seth is appointed ostensibly in the place of Abel. He 
is really appointed as a seed in the place of Cain: that 
is to say, Cain is set aside as being in the image of fallen 
man, his father, in order that he may give way to an- 
other appointed of the Lord. 

In this appointment of the second man you have an- 



GENESIS FOURTH AND FIFTH. 235 

ticipatively the law which Paul lays down, in I Corin- 
thians xv : 46. First the natural and then the Spiritual. 
First the man in the flesh and then the man from 
Heaven. 

In verse 26 you have : 



THE BEGINNING OF PRAYER. 

"Then began man to call upon the name of the Lord." 

The newly appointed seed is a spiritual seed. Prayer 
is the first evidence of it. You have the same principle 
revealed in the New Testament, in the case of Paul's 
conversion: "Behold he prayeth." (See Acts ix : 11.) 

Nowhere do you find that the First Adam prayed, but 
of the Second Adam, it is written : "He continued all 
night in prayer." Luke vi : 12. 

This passage may be rendered, "Then began men to 
call themselves by the name of the Lord." That is they 
owned the name, claim, and authority of the Lord upon 
them. 

While Gain and his seed are seen turning their backs 
upon the Lord, the appointed ^seed own the Lord and 
His way ; and thus this chapter shows us the flesh going 
out from God's presence, beautifying the earth, en- 
deavoring to make it a home without God, a world of 
the flesh, of the beautiful and the Godless ; while God's 
seed are seen as pilgrims and strangers on the earth, go- 
ing Heavenward in close companionship and fellowship 
with Him. 



236 GENESIS FOURTH AND FIFTH. 

GENESIS FIFTH. 

CONTENTS. 

1. The New Generation. 

2. Death Bells. 

3. Walking with God. 

4. The Great Exception. 

5. Theology in Names. 



THE NEW GENERATION. 

At the outset of this chapter you have the generations 
of Adam. Cain was his first born, but neither Cain, nor 
Abel, nor their posterity are mentioned. The reason 
for the omission is clear to spiritual apprehension. Seth 
has been appointed as the new seed. The generation 
through Cain is not to be counted at all. We get an en- 
tirely new generation ; and as in this new generation men 
call upon the name of the Lord, or call themselves by 
the name of the Lord, and men only call themselves by 
the name of the Lord when they are regenerated, this 
new generation of Adam stands typically for Regener- 
ation ; and as in Seth and his posterity the history of God 
in man commences, it may be said that a good definition 
of Regeneration would be, "The History of God in Man." 

You will notice that this new generation comes in af- 
ta the blood of Abel's lamb, and as that sets forth Atone- 
ment, you have indicated the divine and actual order : 
Atonement, Regeneration ; that is to say, death claims 
met, and new life communicated. 



GBNBSIS FOURTH AND FIFTH. 237 

DEATH BELLS. 
(Verses: 5-31.) 

.There is but one refrain in these verses, "And he died." 

No matter how assured of life a man might seem there 
came sooner or later a moment when the death bell tolled, 
"and he died," rang over him. 

Methuselah the son of Enoch seemed to defy death. 
Nine hundred years passed and he still lived; he passed 
the half century mark on the way to a thousand; he 
'added nineteen years, only thirty-one to make the thou- 
sand ; when suddenly, alas ! the death bell rang, "and he 
died." 

What a change since then. Instead of ringing at in- 
tervals of centuries the death bells are appointed to ring 
at the limit of seventy years ; and man was warned that 
if the ringing of the bells was delayed ten years it would 
be with the added note of sorrow and pain. (Psalms 
xc: 10.) 

Since then the interval of the death bells h^s been 
made still narrower ; now they ring on an average every 
thirty-three years. 

In view of this, how startlingly true seems the word 
of the Apostle, "What is your life ? It is even a vapour 
that appeareth for a little season, and then vanisheth 
away." James iv : 14. 

How the old sentence rings anew, "Dying, thou shalt 
die." 



WALKING WITH GOD. 
(Verse 24.) 

What an expression that: "Enoch walked with God.' 
Walking with God signifies : 



238 GBNBSIS FOURTH AND FIFTH. 

1. Going in God's direction. 

2. Keeping step with God. 

3. Talking with God. 

4. At ease in God's presence. 

5. Perfect confidence in God. 

6. Pleasing God. (Hebrews xi: 5.) 

7. No separation from God. 



THE GREAT EXCEPTION. 
(Verse 24.) 

"And was not." This curious phrase is explained by 
Hebrews xii : 5, "God took him." That is to say, he 
was translated, he did not die, he went alive into God's 
Heavens. 

In later years another was so taken : Elijah. 

But there is a Translation coming of which this is only 
a type. In I Corinthians xv: 51, it is written, "We shall 
not all sleep (that is, die), but we shall all be changed 
in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye." 

Chjanged and taken alive into heaven. (I Thessaloni- 
ans iv: 15-17.) 

A generation of Christians alive at the Coming of the 
Lord Jesus Christ! 

Enoch taken to heaven without dying is a picture of 
this generation. 

But Enoch is taken away before the flood- judgment 
falls, and thus Enoch becomes a type of that generation 
known as the church who shall be taken away before 
the Tribulation and threatened judgments fall upon the 
earth. 

That the church will be taken away before the Tribu- 
lation is the promise of Scripture. "I will keep thee 
out" of that hour. (Revelation iii : 10.) 



GENESIS FOURTH AND FIFTH. 239 

Enoch was taken away before the flood, but Noah goes 
through it in the ark. Noah is a type of the Elect Rem- 
nant in Israel who will go through the Tribulation. 

The church never goes through the Tribulation ; it is 
Israel and the Gentiles associated with Israel in the last 
times. 

The teaching of Scripture is plain enough. 

1. The church is kept out of it. (Revelation iii : 10.) 

2. Istiael is so identified with it as in contradistinction 
to the church, that the Tribulation itself is called, "The 
.Day of Jacob's Trouble/' (Jeremiah xxx: 7.) 

3. God puts his seal on the Elect Remnant, or num- 
ber in Israel a,s a proof that they do go through the Trib- 
ulation. (Revelation vii : 1-4.) 

4. In the closing portion of Revelation seventh, a 
view is given of the Gentiles who go through this epoch 
with Israel. 

5. The fourth and fifth chapters of the Revelation 
show that the Church is in Heaven, whither she is caught 
up at the sound of a voice like a trumpet at the opening 
of the fourth chapter, while the elect in Israel and the 
Gentiles are going through the Tribulation. 

6. From the fifth chapter till the nineteenth of Reve- 
lation the church is not seen at all ; and this disappear- 
ance of the church corresponds exactly with the period 
of the Tribulation. 

7. The disappearance of the church in the Revela- 
tion from the scene of Tribulation is in fulfillment of 
the promise in Revelation iii : 10, "I will keep thee from, 
(out of,) the hour of temptation, (Tribulation,) which 
shall come upon all the world to try them that dwell upon 
the earth/' 



240 GENESIS FOURTH AND FIFTH. 

THE THEOLOGY OF NAMES. 

In this chapter we have ten men whose names taken 
in their moral order and according to their meanings, 
give the whole story of man's ruin and redemption. 

Adam — Out of the earth. 

Seth — Second man. 

Enos — Fallen man. 

Canaan — Worker. 

Mahalaleel — Splendor of God. 

Jared — One who descends to rule. 

Enoch — Teacher, Devoted One. 

Methuselah — Offering the death. 

Lamech — Victory. 

Noah — Rest. 

Reading these names as suggested we find that: 

In Adam man is taken out of the earth; in Enos be- 
comes a fallen man; in Canaan endeavors to build him- 
self up by his own works. In Seth a Second Man is re- 
vealed ; like Mahalaleel He is full of the splendor of God ; 
in Jared He descends to rule as King; in Enoch walks 
the earth as Teacher and Devoted One; in Methuselah 
offers up His death for Enos the fallen man ; in Lamech 
gains for Him the victory over sin and death ; in Noah, 
as the result of that victory, takes him into the Rest 
of God. 



THE STORY OF ELIEZER AND 
THE BRIDE. 



Cbe Story of eiiezer and the Bride. 



Genesis xxiv. 



In this chapter we have one of those marvellous type- 
stories which bear witness to the inspiration and infalli- 
bility of the Bible; and bear it in such, fashion that it 
leaves no room for argument or dispute. 

It is the story of EHezer's search after a Bride for 
Abraham's son Isaac. 

Let us note some of the salient facts of this story and 
the doctrinal and spiritual correspondences. 

i. Abraham is presented as old and full of years. 

"Abraham was old and well stricken in age." Gene- 
sis xxiv: i. 

There is a direct Scripture which declares that Abra- 
ham is a type of God, the Father. 

"(As it is written, I have made thee a father of many 
nations) before him whom he believed, even God." Ro- 
mans iv : 17. 

On the margin we read instead of "before," "like 
unto." 

The sentence then would read: 

"I have made thee a father of many nations, ukE unto 
him whom he believed, even God/' 

Abraham therefore is a type of God, the Father. 

To be old or "full of years" in such a connection is 
equivalent to eternity. 

"The years of the right hand of the Most High." Ps. 
lxxvii: 10. 

"Thy years are throughout all generations." Ps. 
cii: 24. 

"Thy years shall not fail." Hebrews i: 12. 

243 



244 EUBZER AND THE BRIDE. 

"The Ancient of days." Daniel vii : 9. 
The old age of Abraham carries us back typically into 
the far eternity of God, the Father. 

2. Abraham has in his house an eldest servant who is 
the Administrator of all that he has. 

"His eldest servant of his house, that ruled over all 
that he had." Genesis xxiv: 2. 

The name of this servant is Eliezer. 

"The steward of my house is this Eliezer of Damas- 
cus." Genesis xv: 2. 

Eliezer signifies "the help of the Lord." 

As Abraham's "help," he was Abraham's energy and 
manifested power. 

The Help, the energy, the executive power of Godhead 
is the Holy Spirit. 

The Holy Spirit is the Steward, the Administrator of 
all that God has. 

"But all these worketh (energei, energizes) that one 
and the self-same Spirit." I Corinthians xii: 11. 

Eliezer is strictly a type of the Holy Spirit. 

3. Abraham as "the Ancient of days" enters into 
solemn covenant with Eliezer. 

"And Abraham said unto his eldest servant, * * * 
Put, I pray thee, thy hand under my thigh; 

And I will make thee swear by the Lord, the God of 
heaven, and the God of earth." Genesis xxiv: 2, 3. 

This is covenant. 

As Abraham and Eliezer set forth the Father and the 
Spirit, it is a type of a covenant between the Father and 
Spirit in the realm and region of Godhead. 

The first notes of a covenant in Godhead are recorded 
in Genesis i: 26. 

"God said, let us make man." 



ELIEZER AND THE BRIDE. 245 

The persons of the Godhead here propose something 
which they agree among themselves to accomplish. 

This is covenant in Godhead. 

As the Spirit is one of the persons of the Godhead, and 
the executive energy and administrator of the same, then 
it is true that the Spirit does enter into covenant relation. 

Abraham and Eliezer entering into covenant relation 
is typically the covenant between God the Father, and 
God the Spirit. 

4. Eliezer covenants to go forth and seek a wife for 
the Father s son. 

''And the servant put his hand under the thigh of Ab- 
raham his master, and sware to him concerning that 
matter." Genesis xxiv: 9. 

The Spirit as one of the divine persons in the bond of 
the everlasting covenant has agreed to come forth and 
seek a bride for the eternal Son of God. 

5. The servant Eliezer proceeds forth from Abraham 
the father in the name of the son. 

Scripture teaches us that this procession of Eliezer 
from the father and the son, is precisely the procession of 
the Holy Spirit from the Eternal Father and the Eternal 
Son. 

"The Spirit which proceedeth from the Father." John 
xv : 26. 

"The Holy Ghost whom the Father will send in my 
name." John xiv: 26. 

6. Eliezer goes forth to seek a bride for the son only 
after that son has been typically offered up on Mount 
Moriah, and received again typically from the dead. 

The twenty-second chapter gives us a view of these 
typical events; then in the twenty-fourth we have the 
going out after a bride for this typically risen son. 



246 BLIBZBR AND THE BRIDE. 

Not until Our Lord has been offered up as the Son of 
the Father; not till he has been received again from the 
dead does the Spirit come forth. 

7. Eliezer goes at once to a people chosen and desig- 
nated of Abraham beforehand. 

The Spirit comes to the twelve, and to-day, to those 
who have been known and chosen of God beforehand. 

"Chosen in him before the foundation of the world." 
Ephesians i: 4. 

8. He meets the young woman ordained to be the 
bride of the son at a well of water. 

"And he made his camels to kneel down without the 
city (Nahor in Mesopotamia), by a well of water, at the 
time of the evening, even the time that women go out to 
draw water." Genesis xxiv: 11. 

It was here that he met Rebekah. 

The well in Scripture is a type of the Gospel. 

"'Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the 
wells of salvation." Isaiah xii: 3. 

It is by and through the Gospel that the Spirit dis- 
covers all those who are to form the bride of Christ. 

9. The servant goes with Rebekah into her brother 
Laban's house and dwells there for a season. 

Laban signifies "the fleshly man." 

Thus the Holy Spirit enters into the fleshly human 
life of the called of God, and takes up his abode for a 
season. 

Read Matthew xxviii: 20. 

"To the end of the world." 

"To the end of the age" is the proper rendering. 

An age is a season. 

This age is the season in which the Holy Spirit takes 
up his abode in the flesh of those who constitute the 



' BUBZBR AND THE BRIDB. 247 

Church of Christ; even with all those who believe in his 
name. 

10. As soon as the servant is inside the house he takes 
out a pack of precious things, precious gifts sent from 
the Father in the name of the Son. 

He discloses these precious things to wondering eyes; 
he distributes to each severally as he wills. 

"Precious things." Genesis xxiv: 53. 

This is the work of the Holy Spirit. 

He is here in the Church. 

He is here to distribute spiritual gifts. 

"The self-same Spirit dividing to every man severally 
as he will." I Corinthians xii: 11. 

He takes the things sent from the Father in the name 
of the Son and shows them to the children of God. 

"He shall take of mine and show it unto you." John 
xvi: 14. 

"As it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, 
neither have entered into the heart of man, the things 
which God hath prepared for them that love him." 

But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit. 
for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things 
of God." I Corinthians ii: 9, 10. 

"Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but 
the Spirit which is of God; that we might know the 
things that are freely given to us of God." I Corin- 
thians ii: 12. 

He brings forth the "precious things." 

Note some of them: 

Precious Faith. I Peter i : 7. II Peter i: I. 

Precious Blood. I Peter i: 19. 

Precious Stone. I Peter ii: 4. 

Precious Promises. II Peter i : 4. 



2 4 8 EUEZER AND THE BRIDE. 

ii. Eliezer invites Rebekah to go with him and be- 
come the bride of the son. Genesis xxiv : 48, 49, 58. 

Not only is the Church in all its individual member- 
ship called out by the Gospel, but also by the convicting 
power of the Spirit. 

"For our gospel came not unto you in word only, but 
also in power, and in the Holy Ghost." I Thessalonians 

i:5. 

12. She willingly consents. 

"And they called Rebekah, and said unto her, Wilt 
thou go with this man ? And she said, I will go." verse 

58- 

Those who are in the covenant bonds respond willingly 
when they hear the call. 

"Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power." 
Ps. ex: 3. 

13. The servant leads Rebekah forth to meet the Son. 
"And the servant took Rebekah, and went his way." 

Genesis xxiv: 61. 

This is the work of the Spirit to-day, to guide the 
Church in the way until Bridegroom and Bride shall 
meet. 

As he went along the journey the servant would speak 
to Rebekah about the son, tell her of his looks, his 
beauty, his possessions; he would tell her of the home 
that was being prepared for her. 

Concerning the Spirit it is said: 

"He will guide you into all truth: for he shall not 
speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall 
he speak ; and he will show you things to come. 

He shall glorify me : for he shall receive of mine and 
shall show it unto you." John xvi : 13, 14. 

If we let the Spirit alone, if we do not grieve, or 
quench him, he will set the absent Lord before us in all 



ELIEZER AND THE BRIDE. 240 

his attractive beauty and tell us of his glory, of the 
things in store for us, and of the home he has gone to 
prepare ; if we yield to him as Rebekah did he will guide 
us as the members of his body and the members of his 
bride. 

14. While the affianced Bride was traveling on the 
pilgrim way, suddenly the Son came forth to meet her. 

"She said, * * * What man is this that walketh 
in the field to MEET us." Genesis xxiv: 65. 

This is the hope held out to the Church. 

The hope that at any moment the Son may come forth 
to meet her. 

This is always the "next thing" in her economy. 

"Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious ap- 
pearing of our great God and Saviour, Jesus Christ." 
Titus ii: 13. 

15. Rebekah and Isaac meet in the open Held; they 
met at the Eventide. 

"And Isaac went out to meditate in the field at the 
eventide." Genesis xxiv: 63. 

That is, they met at close of day, and outside the dwell- 
ing of man. 

Christ and the Church will meet at the close of this 
day of grace, and in the open field of the air. 

1. Thessalonians iv: 14-16. 

16. Isaac the Son receives Rebekah unto himself. 
"And Rebekah lifted up her eyes, and when she saw 

Isaac, she lighted off the camel. 

For she had said unto the servant, "What man is this 
that walketh in the field to meet us?" Genesis xxiv: 
64, 65. 

"And Isaac brought her into his mother Sarah's tent, 
and took Rebekah, and she became his wife." verse 67. 



250 BLIBZBR AND THE BRIDB. 

* 

So will Christ present his Church unto himself. 
"That he might present it to himself ( a glorious 
church." Ephesians v : 27. 

17. The marriage took place in the far country, away 
from the natural home of the bride. 

The marriage of Christ and the Church will take place 
in that far country called heaven. Revelation xix : i-7. 

18. The work of Bliezer was not complete till he 
had brought the bride home and presented her to the 
bridegroom. 

Nor did he fail; that good work which he began he 
carried out. 

The work of the Spirit will not be complete till he 
has brought the Church home and presented her to the 
Bridegroom : nor will the Spirit fail with the Church. 
He will guide her on till the hour ordained of God 
arrives. He will bring each individual member of that 
bride to the palace of the king, to the "place prepared." 

Such is the story as it is told in the twenty-fourth 
chapter of Genesis. 

It is well to see these three chapters in their mar- 
vellous relation. 

The Twenty-first, Twenty-second, and the Twenty- 
fourth. 

In the twenty-first chapter you have a son brought in 
by the power of God after nature has failed. 

In Isaac you have the son given to the woman by the 
special exercise of the power of God. 

Isaac is a son, in reality, above nature. 

He is typically, the supernatural son. 

In the twenty-second chapter you get that son in 
whom are all the promises and the hopes, laid on the 
altar, and so far as the intention and will of Abraham are 
concerned, offered up to God as a sacrifice. 



BLIEZER AND THE BRIDE. 251 

In the twenty-second chapter you have this son re- 
ceived again from the dead "in figure, in a type," as we 
are told distinctly in Hebrews xi: 19. 

"Accounting that God was able to raise him up, even 
from the dead ; from whence also h£ received him in a 
figure." Literally, in a parable. That is to say, his 
being raised from the altar was a comparison, an illus- 
tration, of the resurrection from the dead. 

In the twenty-first chapter you get Incarnation. 

In the twenty-second chapter you get death and res- 
urrection. 

In the twenty-third chapter Isaac disappears from 
view. 

He does not come into view till the close of the twenty- 
fourth chapter. 

He does not come into view after his typical resurrec- 
tion till Eliezer has brought out the bride. 

Now put the four chapters together in their sequences. 

Chapter 21. The Incarnation. 

Chapter 22. Death and Resurrection of the Son. 

Chapter 23. The disappearance and absence of the Son 
from the view of earth. 

Chapter 24. The Calling out of the Bride. 

Chapter 24. The coming of the Bridegroom to take 
his Bride to himself into the place prepared. 

On what other ground can you account for the abso- 
lute accuracy of these types than on that of divine in- 
spiration ? 

H)ow can you account for the story of Christ's birth, 
death, resurrection, the coming of the Holy Spirit, the 
present calling out of the church, the promise of the 
Coming and the marriage in heaven, fitting into these 
types and becoming absolutely antitypical, correlative 



2$2 EL1EZER AND THE BRIDE. 

and corresponding, unless, on the one hand, these Gen- 
esis stories are the prophecies in picture given by the 
Spirit of God ; and, on the other hand, that Jesus Christ 
was the Son whom God fore-saw to be born of a woman 
through his power, who should be offered up as a sac- 
rifice, be raised from the dead on the "third day" as 
that very day was designated on Mount Moriah, dis- 
appear from the earth during the preaching of the gos- 
pel, and when the Spirit should have accomplished his 
work, come forth to receive his church and take her 
into the place prepared? 

The type and Antitype fit each other like hand and 
glove. 

No better nor more conclusive evidence of the in- 
spiration and inerrancy of the Bible as the Word of God 
could be found; the evidence is conclusive. 



THE STORY OF JOSEPH. 



Cbe Story of 3o$epb- 



THE STORY OF JOSEPH. 

Joseph is the o,ne and only character presented to 
us in the Bible without a flaw. 

As such he is a perfect type of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
the sinless man. 

A study of the story will reveal the completeness of 
the type. 

The correspondence between type and Antitype not 
only verifies Jesus as the Christ thus anticipated, but 
demonstrates that the book of Genesis has been inspired 
of God. 

Joseph was the son of Jacob's old age. 

"Old age," translated into' spiritual language and ap- 
plied to God, signifies "eternity." 

Jesus Christ was the Son of God's eternity. 

From all eternity He was God's Son. 

He was never derived, he was eternally begotten; he 
is God of God, very God of very God, equal with, and of 
the same substance as, the Father. The term "sonship" 
can never be applied to him in the divine sense, as it is 
applied in the human. 

In the divine sense he is the eternal expression of the 
Fatherhood of God, the eternal and essential expression. 
He is his Son, and the Son of his love. 

On the human side he is derived. 

His humanity is of the seed of the woman. 

Mary is his mother. 

God is his Father. 

In his humanity he is the express image of God's 
person. 

255 



2S6 THE STORY OF JOSEPH. 

He is the engraving of God in flesh. 

Joseph, the son of Jacob's old age sets him forth as 
the eternally begotten Son who was "made flesh, and 
dwelt among us." 

Joseph was Jacob's beloved son. 

"Now Israel loved Joseph, more than all his children.' , 
Genesis xxxvii: 3. 

Jesus Christ was the "beloved Son" of God. 

"This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased." 
Matthew iii: 17. 

Jacob made Joseph a coat of many colors. 

"He made him a coat of many colors." Genesis 
xxxvii: 3. 

a. This coat was such as was worn only by a son or 
heir. By one who held the place of headship and Lord- 
ship. 

Our Lord Jesus is continually set forth as the heir. 

In the parable of the wicked husbandmen. Matthew 
xxi: 38. 

In Romans iv: 13. "The heir of the world." 

Hebrews i: 2. "His Son, whom he hath appointed 
heir of all things." 

b. The coat, or robe, signifies exalted dignity, Lord- 
ship. 

In giving this splendid robe to his son, Jacob publicly 
exalted him and declared his coming Lordship. 
Concerning our Lord Jesus Christ it is written : 
"Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, *-'■'** 
that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is 
Lord to the glory of God the Father." Philippians ii: 
10, 11. 

c. This robe was of many colors. 

Color in Scripture stands for quality, function, title. 



THE STORY OF JOSEPH. 257 

Blue sets forth heavenly things : for, it is the color of 
heaven. 

Scarlet is the color of earth, the color of kings, of 
royalty, and sets forth these things. 

The many colors give us the many offices and, there- 
fore, the many titles of the Son of God. 

"On his head were many crowns." Revelation xix: 12. 

The titles are many indeed. 

Note some of them: 

Son of Mary. 

Son of Abraham. 

Son of David. 

Son of Man. 

Son of God. 

The Son of the Father. 

God the Son. 

The Messiah. 

The Christ. 

The Word of God. 

King of the Jews. 

King of Israel. 

King of Nations. 

King of Kings. 

The Prince of the Kings of the Earth. 

The Prince of Peace. 

The Branch. 

The Plant of Renown. 

The Lily of the Valley. 

The Rose of Sharon. 

Alpha and Omega. 

Beginning and Ending. 
The Image of God. 

The First and the Last. 



258 THE STORY OF JOSEPH. 

The Amen. 

The Express Image of God's Person. 

The Brightness of his Glory. 

The Faithful and True Witness. 

The Wonderful. 

The Counsellor. 

The Advocate. 

The Mighty God. 

The Everlasting Father. 

The robe of many colors then fittingly sets forth, the 
manifold glories of Christ, the Father's well beloved. 

Joseph had visions of future sovereignty over his 
brethren. 

"And he said unto them, Hear, I pray you, this dream 
which I have dreamed: 

For, behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and, 
lo, my sheaf arose, and also stood upright; and, behold, 
your sheaves stood round about, and made obeisance to 
my sheaf. 

And his brethren said unto him, Shalt thou indeed 
reign over us? * * * And they hated him yet the 
more." Genesis xxxvii: 5.-1 1. 

The central chord of prophecy is the declaration that 
Jesus Christ shall rule and reign over his brethren ac- 
cording to the flesh, the Jews. 

"He shall reign over the house of Jacob forever." 
Luke i : 33. 

Joseph responded willingly when his father called him 
to go forth to do his will. 

"And Israel said unto Joseph, Do not thy brethren 
feed the flock in Shechem? Come, and I will send thee 
unto them, And he said to him, Here am L" Genesis 
xxxvii; 13, 



THE STORY OF JOSEPH. 259 

So the eternal Son of God came to do the will of the 
Father. 

"Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book 
it is written of me) to do thy will, O God." Hebrews 
x:7. 

"For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own 
will, but the will of him that sent me." John vi: 38. 

Joseph's Father sent him to seek his brethren. 

"* * * Come, and I will send thee unto them." 
Verse 13. 

The correspondence is absolute. 

Our Lord Jesus Christ according to the will of the 
Father came into this world to seek his brethren of the 
house of Israel. 

"He answered and said, I am not sent but unto the 
lost sheep of the house of Israel." Matthew xv : 24. 

Joseph's iirst announcement of his mission was made 
to his brethren as to shepherds. 

"Thy brethren feed the flock in Schechem." Verse 13. 

It is certainly far from accident, or mere coincidence, 
that the first announcement of the mission of the beloved 
Son to the people in the land of Israel should be made 
to shepherds. 

But there is the fact: When Joseph was first announced 
to his brethren they were as "shepherds keeping their 
flock." 

There is the other fact to match it : When Jesus Christ 
was first announced as the Sent of the Father, that 
announcement was made to those who kept their flocks. 

To the spiritual mind there is no more "happy chance" 
in this coincidence than in the movement of the stars on 
high. 

After Joseph zvent forth on his mission to seek his 
brethren he became for a time a wanderer in the Held. 



260 THE STORY OF JOSEPH. 

"And, behold, he was wandering in the field." Verse 

15. 

In spiritual nomenclature, "the field is the world." 
Matthew xiii: 38. And no more truthful designation 
can be found for the Son of God as he sought to fulfill 
his earthly mission than that of "Wanderer." 

"And Jesus said unto him, Foxes have holes, and birds 
of the air have nests ; but the Son of man hath not where 
to lay his head." Luke ix: 58. 

Joseph found his brethren in Dothan. 

"And Joseph went after his brethren, and found them 
in Dothan." Verse 17. 

Dothan signifies, "Law, or Custom." 

And it was there that Jesus found his brethren, dwell- 
ing under the bondage of the law, and slaves to mere 
religious formalism. 

"And the Lord said unto him, Now do ye Pharisees 
make clean the outside of the cup and the platter ; but 
your inward part is full of ravening and wickedness." 
Luke xi : 39. 

"For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold 
the tradition of men." Mark vii : 8. 

Joseph's brethren mocked and refused to receive him. 

"And they said one to another, Behold, this dreamer 
cometh." Verse 19. 

Of our Lord it is written: 

"He came unto his own, and his own received him 
not." John i: 11. 

Joseph's brethren took counsel how they might slay 
him. 

"Come now, therefore, and let us slay him, and cast 
him into some pit." Genesis xxxvii: 20. 

In the same guilty spirit the Jews took counsel to slay 
the Son of God. 



THE STORY OF JOSEPH. 261 

"When the morning was come, all the chief priests and 
elders of the people took counsel against Jesus to put 
him to death." Matthew xxvii: 1. 

And like their ancestors of old in Dothan, they hated 
him. 

Joseph's brethren mocked him and set him at naught. 

"They conspired against him. * * * And they 
said one to another, Behold this dreamer." Verses 18, 
19. 

"And Herod with his men of war set him at naught, 
and mocked him." Luke xxiii: 11. Mark xxv: 11-19. 
Isaiah liii: 3. 

Judah counselled his brethren to sell him to the Ish- 
maelites. 

"Come let us sell him to the Ishmaelites." Verse 2J. 

Not only is the selling of the Son of God thus typically 
announced, it is also foretold by the prophet. 

"So they weighed for my price thirty pieces of silver." 
Zechariah xi: 12, 13. 

Both type and prophecy were fulfilled to the letter. 

"And said unto them (Judas said), What will ye give, 
me, and I will deliver him unto you? And they cove- 
nanted with him for thirty pieces of silver." Matthew 
xxvi: 15. 

Joseph was sold to the Ishmaelites, and Christ after 
his sale was turned over to the Ishmaelites of history, 
the Romans. 

Joseph's brethren cast him into a pit. 

"And they took him, and cast him into a pit; and the 
pit was empty, there was no water in it." Verse 24. 

The Pit wherein is no water is another name for 
Hades, the underworld, the abode of the disembodied 
dead: of all the dead before the resurrection of Christ. 



262 THE STORY OF JOSEPH. 

"The pit wherein is no water." Zechariah ix: II. 

"For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the 
whale's belly, so shall the Son of man be three days and 
three nights in the heart of the earth." Matthew xii : 40. 

It was here our Lord, as to his soul, abode between 
death and resurrection. 

Joseph was taken out of the pit alive, in his body. 

"And they lifted up Joseph out of the pit." verse 28. 

The actual order of the occurrence is that Joseph was 
first cast into the pit and then sold; but the moral order 
of the type is not deranged by that fact; it is in the light 
of the Antitypical history that we make the type to be 
verified, as well as to verify it. 

The lifting out of the pit, is one of those divine antici- 
pations of the resurrection scattered all through the Old 
Testament from Genesis to Malachi. 

Reuben came to the pit and found him gone, and went 
away believing him dead. 

"And Reuben returned unto the pit; and, behold, 
JOSEPH was not in Th£ pit ; and he rent his clothes. 

And he returned unto his brethren and said, The child 
is not; and I, whither shall I go?" verses 29, 30. 

Reuben practically represents the Jew of to-day. 

To-day the Jew is ignorant of the fact that Christ is 
alive. 

He knows nothing of resurrection. 

Joseph's coat was taken and dipped in the blood of a 
victim and then presented to the father. 

"And they took Joseph's coat, and killed a kid of the 
goats, and dipped the coat in the blood * * * and 
they brought it to their father." Verses 31, 32. 

The application of the type is self-evident. 

The blood of Jesus Christ as the blood of a scape- 
goat, a sin offering, was presented to the FatheV. 



THE STORY OF JOSEPH. 263 

After Joseph had been rejected by his brethren he was 
taken down into Egypt, a far country, in order that he 
might become a saviour unto the Gentile world as such. 

"And they (the Ishmaelites) brought Joseph into 
Egypt.'' Verse 28. 

After Christ was rejected by the Jews and had been 
raised and taken up to the throne of God, the Apostle 
Peter preached Christ Uiito the Jews, and declared that 
if they would confess the sin of which they had been 
guilty in rejecting him, God the Father would send him 
back again. 

They rejected him in resurrection, even, as they had 
rejected him before the cross. 

God then called Paul, gave him the full revelation, and 
sent him to preach the Christ, the Messiah, to the Jews, 
as the Son of God risen from the dead; offering them 
no longer the kingdom, but a participation in the Church, 
the body of Christ. 

They refused Jesus of Nazareth as the Son of God, 
even as they had refused him on the offering of the 
prophets and the Apostle Peter as the Christ ; then, this 
now doubly rejected Christ was presented by the Apostle 
Paul to the Gentiles, as the Risen Son of God. 

After Joseph was rejected by his brethren and taken 
to Egypt he was exalted to the throne of Pharaoh. 

In Joseph therefore we have the rejected man, the 

REJECTED JEW, ON THE THRONE OE POWER. 

"And Pharaoh said unto Joseph * * * Thou 
shalt be over my house, and according to thy word shall 
all my people be ruled ; only in the throne will I be 
greater than thou." Genesis xli : 39, 40. 

Now read: Revelation iii : 21. 

"To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me 



264 THB STORY OF JOSEPH. 

in my throne even as I also overcame, and am set down 
with my Father in his throne." 

To-day our Lord Jesus Christ shares the throne of the 
Father as Joseph shared the throne of Pharaoh. 

As Joseph ruled over Pharaoh's house with his word, 
so to-day our Lord Jesus Christ rules over the Father's 
household, the household of faith, the Church, by and 
through his word. 

And let it be clearly kept in mind that while Joseph 
was on the throne of Pharoah he was not on his own 
throne ; that is to say, he was not in the place of rule over 
his brethren. 

And to-day, while our Lord Jesus Christ is on the 
throne of His Father, He is not on His own throne. 
Read the passage just quoted in Revelation again and 
it will be seen that our Lord Jesus Christ himself makes 
a distinction between his throne and the Father's throne, 
and promises reward to the overcomer, not on the 
Father's throne, but on his own ; and we know, accord- 
ing to the promise of the angel made to Mary, and the 
covenant made to David, and the title he wears as the 
king of Israel, the Son of David, and the Son of Abra- 
ham, that his throne is at Jerusalem, the "city of the 
Great King." On his Father's throne he sits to-day as 
the Rejected Man, the Rejected Jew. 

While on the throne of Pharaoh, Joseph, the Rejected 
Hebrezv, gets a Gentile Wife. 

"And he (Pharaoh) gave him (Joseph) to wife Asen- 
ath, the daughter of Potipherah, priest of on." Gen- 
esis xli : 45. 

And here we find the suggestion of the great truth 
about Christ to-day. Read Acts xv: 14. 

"God at the first did visit (is visiting now) the Gen- 
tiles, to TAKE OUT OF" THEM A PEOPLE FOR HIS NAME." 

Now when a man seeks to marry a woman he loves, 



THE STORY OF JOSEPH. 265 

he seeks her in order that HE may put his name upon 
HER. When his name is upon her she is his Wife. 

The fact that Christ is now calling out a people from 
among the Gentiles in order that He may put His name 
upon them, is the declaration that He is calling out this 
body of Gentiles in order that they may be brought into 
living union with Himself, be His mystical Bride, His 
Wife. 

Joseph's rejection by his brethren meant the getting of 
a Gentile Bride. 

That is the meaning of Christ's rejection by His breth- 
ren after the flesh in this hour, He is getting a Gentile 
Bride. 

While seated on the throne Joseph became the giver of 
the bread of Life to the starving world. 

"And when all the land of Egypt was famished, the 
people cried to Pharaoh for bread : and Pharaoh said 
unto all the Egyptians, Go unto Joseph." Genesis xli : 

55- 

It was a wonderful thing that the despised and re- 
jected Jew should be the passport to the favor of Pha- 
raoh ; a wonderful thing that the rejected Jew should 
be exalted into the place of a Saviour for a famine- 
smitten world ; it was a wonderful thing that this rejected 
Jew should be the only Saviour for that starving world. 

Equally true and wonderful is it to-day that Jesus the 
rejected Jew is the passport to the favor of God; that 
he is "the way, the truth, and the life," and that "no 
man cometh unto the Father" but by him; wonderful 
that this rejected Christ should be exalted into a Saviour 
for a famine-smitten world ; wonderful that this rejected 
Christ is the alone Saviour for a starving world. 

Joseph was sent by his Father to his brethren that 



266 THB STORY OF JOSEPH. 

he might be a blessing unto them, and they refused; 
then God turned their sin so that while it should remain 
as a judgment to them, it might become a blessing to 
others. 

In sending His Son to fulfill the promises made to the 
Fathers, God would have brought covenant and num- 
berless blessings to Israel ; they refused, and God has 
made use of their blindness and sin to turn salvation to 
others. 

He has made the very sin and blindness of the people, 
to be the occasion of grace and mercy to the whole 
world. 

"Through their fall salvation is come unto the Gen- 
tiles." Romans xi : n. 

Joseph became the saviour of all peoples and tongues. 

"And all countries came to Joseph." Genesis xli : 57. 

Listen to the fulfillment of the type in Revelation v : 9. 

"Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy 
blood, out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and 
nation." 

When the famine-stricken people came to Pharaoh he 
caused a proclamation to be sent forth in these terms : 

"Go to Joseph." 

"And when all the land of Egypt was famished the 
people cried to Pharaoh for bread : and Pharaoh sa:d 
unto all the Egyptians, go unto Joseph; what he saith 
unto you, do." Genesis xli : 55. 

This was the Gospel in Egypt, the good news of sai- 
vation in Joseph, and the good news that whosoever was 
hungry might go to Joseph. 

It was the good news that Joseph could meet the 
case. 



THE STORY OF JOSEPH. 267 

The Gospel, the good news to-day is, that there is 
salvation in Jesus, that whosoever will may go to him . 
the word is : "Go to Jesus." 

The good news is, that he meets the case of every one ; 
the good news is, that the rejected Hebrew has been 
taken from the pit and the dungeon and has been ex- 
alted to the throne of God with power to meet the soul's 
need, whatever it may be. 

Without Joseph presented as a saviour to Egypt there 
would have been no hope for Egypt. 

Without Christ for the world there would be no hope 
for the world. 

Take Joseph from Egypt and all would have been 
famine in Egypt. 

Egypt would have been turned into a desert waste. 

Take Christ out of the world as he is in it to-day; 
take him out of art and literature, out of society and 
government, and you would have a famine. 

You would destroy the best paintings in the world's 
galleries, the best statues, the noblest poetry, the most ex- 
alted prose ; society would have no salt to preserve it 
from corruption ; government would have no bridle to 
hold in check the wild beast tendencies in man ; hope 
would stand paralyzed in the path of life, and despair 
with tortured face and silent lips would stand on guard 
above the graves of our dead. Everywhere there would 
be soul famine, not for bread, but for the hearing of the 
word of God. 

When the Church at the "Rapture" has been removed 
from the world and the .Gospel is silent, such a time will 
come. 

"Behold, the days come saith the Lord God, that I 
will send a famine in the land ; not a famine of bread, 



268 THE STORY OF JOSEPH. 

nor a thirst for water, but of hearing of the words of 
the Lord. 

And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the 
north even to the east; they shall run to and fro to seek 
the word of the Lord, and shall not find it." Amos viii : 
II, 12. 

Joseph had resources zvithout limit to meet the hunger 
of the Egyptian world. 

"And Joseph gathered corn as the sand of the sea, 
very much, until he left numbering; for it was without 
number." Genesis xli : 49. 

So are the riches of grace in Christ, without number, 
without limit. 

"The riches of his grace." Ephesians i : 7. 
• "Exceeding riches of his grace." Ephesians ii : 7. 

"The unsearchable riches of Christ." Ephesians iii : 
8. 

"The same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon 
him." Romans x: 12. 

"Rich in mercy." Ephesians ii : 4. 

"The grace of our Lord exceeding abundant." I Tim- 
othy i : 14. 

"Abundant mercy." I Peter i : 3. 

"The things that are freely given to us." I Corin- 
thians ii : 12. 

"I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain 
of the water of life freely." Revelation xxi : 6. 

"Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely." 
Revelation xxii : 17. 

"In him dwelleth all the fulness of the godhead 
bodily." Colossians ii : 9. 

Our exalted Joseph has indeed riches of salvation to 
meet all the needs of the world. 



THE STORY OF JOSEPH. 269 

After Joseph's rejection his brethren suffer famine and 
are forced to go forth of their own land into Egypt, be- 
come, in fact, wanderers. 

As soon as Christ is rejected his brethren after the 
flesh, the Jews, begin to endure suffering. 

They suffered in the siege of Jerusalem under Titus. 
More than a million are said to have perished in that 
siege, the horrors of which have never been fully told. 
Thousands were carried away captive and sold into ab- 
ject slavery, while the rest were driven before their con- 
querors like the chaff before the wind of the summer's 
threshing floor. For two thousand years they have been 
the people of the trembling heart and the restless foot. 
They have wandered in all lands seeking their life, until 
their sufferings and sorrows have been such as no other 
nation ever knew. 

If Jesus Christ is known as a man of sorrows and ac- 
quainted with grief, it may be said that the Jews are the 
one nation whose fitting title might be, a nation of sor- 
rows and acquainted with grief. 

Read Deuteronomy xxviii : 58-67, and you have this 
blood-written history prophetically anticipated, and told 
with such perfectness of detail that it would seem 
almost as if penned to-day. 

Although Joseph's brethren ao not know him when 
they come into Egypt, he knows them and has his eye 
constantly upon them. 

"And Joseph knew his brethren, but they knew not 
him." Genesis xlii : 8. 

Although the Jews do not know their own Messiah to- 
day, yet through all these ages of anguish he has had 
his eye on them, and has followed them with profound 
grief along every path of pain. 



270 THE STORY OF JOSEPH. 

"For mine eyes are upon all their ways; they are not 
hid from my face." Jeremiah xvi: 17. 

"I know Ephraim, and Israel is not hid from me." 
Hosea v : 3. 

Joseph spoke roughly to his brethren and caused them 
to be put in prison. 

Joseph punished them. 

"Spake roughly unto them." Genesis xlii : 7. 

"And he put them all together into ward (prison) 
three days." Genesis xlii : 17. 

Joseph was the cause of their trouble now. 

Joseph was punishing them for their past dealing with 
himself. 

The secret of all Judah's suffering during the past cen- 
turies is to be found in the fact that the rejected Messiah 
has been dealing "roughly" with them. He has been 
punishing them, making use of their wilfulness and the 
cupidity of the nations, but, all the same, punishing 
them. 

"My God will cast them away, because they did not 
hearken unto him : and they shall be wanderers among 
the nations." Hosea ix: 17. 

"He that scattered Israel." Jeremiah xxxi : 10. 

"All countries whither I have driven them." Jere- 
miah xxxii : 37. 

"Behold your house is left unto you desolate. 

For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, 
till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name 
of the Lord." Matthew xxiii : 38, 39. 

"That upon you may come all the righteous blood 
shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel 
unto the blood of Zecharias son of Barachias whom ye 
slew between the temple and the altar. 



THE STORY OF JOSEPH. 271 

Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come 
upon this generation" (nation). Matthew xxiii : 35, 36. 

Nothing can account for the unparalleled suffering of 
this people, but the judgment and discipline of the Lord. 

He has spoken roughly unto them. 

In spite of his rough dealing with them, Joseph at 
heart was full of love towards his brethren. 

"And he turned himself about from them, and wept."' 
Genesis xlii : 24. 

Behold the Antitype : 

And when he (Jesus) was come near, he beheld the 
city, and wept over it. Luke xix: 41. 

"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the 
prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, 

HOW OFTEN WOULD I HAVE GATHERED THY CHILDREN." 

Matthew xxiii : 37. 

On the third day Joseph's brethren found him pre- 
sented to them as one zvho was willing to be a saviour 
through the way of substitution. Verses 18-24. 

On the third day he caused Simeon to be bound in the 
place of his brethren, and declared that by this means 
they might all be delivered. 

In the third day era, that is to say on the resurrection 
side of the grave, on the day of Pentecost, the Apostle 
Peter presented our Lord Jesus Christ as the risen one 
whom God had exalted to be a prince and a saviour unto 
Israel, declaring that if the latter should repent of their 
evil and sin towards him whom he had sent to be Mes- 
siah and King, he would accept his death as the substitu- 
tion for the judgment due them ; that he would save 
them and send his Son again to be both Messiah and 
Saviour. 



2j2 THE STORY OF JOSEPH. 

He commanded them to make this confession through 
baptism, and by this act testify that he who had died, had 
indeed been raised from the dead. 

For the first seven chapters of the book of Acts, this 
Gospel of death and resurrection is preached unto the 
Jews. 

And this is God's order in respect to the Gospel: "the 
Jew first, and then the Gentile." 

Note the deep significance of Joseph's word : 

"This do, and live." Verse 18. 

Do what ? 

Put a substitute in your place and you shall live. 

And this is the Gospel we are to preach to the sinner 
to-day. 

Put Christ in your place of judgment, present him by 
faith to God as the substitute ready to answer for, and 
meet the claims of judgment against you. 

Claim Christ as your personal substitute. 

The substitution of the man dead on the cross, is made 
effective by faith in the man alive from the dead on the 
third day. 

Let it be repeated : the man dead on the cross is made 
effective as a substitute to all who believe in him as the 
man alive from the dead on the third day ; thus the sud- 
stitution presented by Joseph on the third day, as the 
way of salvation from condemnation and prison, when 
typically welded together, unmistakably gives the Gospel 
of the crucified substitute made available by the third 
day to our Lord's brethren in the flesh, and the whole 
world, for faith. 

Joseph gave orders to fill his brethrens' sacks, return 
their money, and provide for them l?y the way, 



THE STORY OF JOSEPH. 273 

"Then Joseph commanded to fill their sacks with corn, 
and to restore every man's money into his sack, and to 
give them provision for the way." Verse 25. 

By this action Joseph became a sanctuary and refuge 
unto them in a strange land. 

In spite of all the judgment which he allows to fall 
upon them, the Holy One of Israel has been as a sanctu- 
ary and a refuge unto the Jew in every land whither he 
has come. 

This is his promise in Ezekiel xi : 16. 

If the suffering and the sorrow of the Jews be evi- 
dence that God has judicially dealt with them, equally 
true is it that their marvellous preservation in the face 
of these sufferings, demonstrates that God is behind his- 
tory on their behalf, and has provided for them through 
all the way. 

"For I am with thee, saith the Lord, to save thee; 
though I make a full end of all nations whither I have 
scattered thee, yet will I not make a full end of thee." 
Jeremiah xxx : 1 1 . 

In spite of all his dealings with them Joseph's brethren 
failed to recognize him. 

"And Joseph knew his brethren, but th£y kn£w not 
him." Genesis xlii : 8. 

What a type this is ! 

How accurate ! How prophetic ! 

For two thousand years, in the face of the exaltation of 
Christ and the adoration of the whole world; in face of 
their own miraculous preservation through the ages, the 
Jews do not know that this rejected Hebrew on the 
throne of God is their own brother after the flesh, and 
their very Messiah and King. 

They are blinded. 



274 THE STORY OF JOSEPH. 

"Blindness in. part is happened to Israel." Romans 
xi : 25. 

2. Corinthians iii : 13-16. 

John xii: 35-41. 

No sadder spectacle can be conceived than that of this 
homeless people, linked by ties of nationality, race, and 
eternal covenant to the Christ of God, and yet utterly 
ignorant of him as brother and Lord. 

No more startling spectacle can be conceived than this : 

A Jew on the throne of the universe with unlimited 
power of blessing for Jews, and these same Jews on earth 
wanderers and sufferers before the face of men. 

The three chapters, from forty-two to forty-four in- 
clusive, may properly be said to be an account of the trib- 
ulation of Jacob's Children : and as his name is Israel, 
then we have in this sojourn and experience in Egypt, 
a Time of Tribulation for the Children of Israel before 
they know and own Joseph. 

What the type indicates, prophecy in unmistakable 
utterance declares : 

There is a time of unparalleled suffering in store for 
the children of Israel, specially for the Jews, before they 
know and own the Lord. 

This time of suffering and sore trial is called 
definitely, "the time of Jacob's Trouble." 

"Alas ! for that day is great, so that none is like it : it 
is even the Time of Jacob's trouble:." Jeremiah 
xxx : 7. 

"For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not 
since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor 
ever shall be." Matthew xxiv: 21. 

This time of tribulation to Joseph's brethren, this time 
of Jacob's trouble, took place after Joseph had taken 

A GENTIEE WIEE AND PEACED HER ON THE THRONE- 



THE STORY OF JOSEPH. 27$ 

The type is absolutely accurate; for, we learn from 
Revelation fourth and fifth chapters, that the church, the 
Bride, the wife of Christ is taken up to the throne in 
the heavens before the tribulation bursts forth. 

In the fourth chapter twenty- four elders are seen on 
thrones in association with the Lord of Glory. 

These twenty-four, as to number, set up the idea of 
the priesthood, for such was the number of the priestly 
courses in the temple ; as to eldership, they set forth ad- 
ministration and rule; the symbol is that of the church, 
considered individually, as king's and priests, corporately, 
as the bride of Christ, exalted to the throne. 

In the fifth chapter these enthroned and crowned 
elders break forth into rapturous praise, anticipatively 
celebrating the coming of the king and kingdom ; they 
cry out: "we shall reign on (over) the earth." Revela- 
tion v : 10. 

In the fourth and fifth chapters then you have indis- 
putably the Church of Christ in heaven, on the throne 
with Christ. 

It is only after the church is seen seated in the heavens 
with Christ on the throne, that we get an account of that 
tribulation, which is none other than the time of Jacob's 
trouble. 

There is no warrant, outside the imagination of men, 
for the thought that the Church will go through a tribu- 
lation particularly intended as sifting time for Israel, and 
furnace blast for the world. 

If we get wrong in our doctrine, the moment we go 
back to our type we are made right. 

Remember it : 

Joseph's brethren do not get into trouble and suffering" 
till after Joseph takes a Gentile bride to The 

THRONE OF POWER. 



276 THE STORY OF JOSEPH. 

the tribulation comes in after the; wife: has been 
separated from all, others and exalted to the 

THRONE. 

Precisely so does the Spirit of God paint the actual 
facts in the New Testament. 

There, we see the church caught up into the 
heavens and the throne op god, before a single 
word is said of the tribulation ; then, after the 
church is seen seated and sheltered on the throne, 
the Spirit gives a description of the tribulation, 
the great one, running through thirteen chap- 
ters; and not once is the word church mentioned; 
or, the thought of it suggested. 

Joseph zvas made known to his brethren the second 

TIME. 

"And at the second time Joseph was made known to 
his brethren." Acts vii: 13. 

The application is self evident. 

Only when our Lord comes the second time will his 
people, the Jews, know and own him. 

"And they shall look upon me whom they have 
pierced." Zechariah xii : 10. Revelation i: 7. 

The conversion of the Apostle Paul is a typical verifi- 
cation of the Joseph type and a vivid illustration of the 
actual fact. 

Listen to what he says in I Timothy i: 15, 16: 

"I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might 
shew forth all long suffering, for a pattern to them 
which should hereafter believe on him to life ever- 
lasting." 

Paul WAS NOT CONVERTED BY THE PREACHING OF THE 

gospel but by the appearing of our Lord Jesus 
Christ from heaven, in glory, above the gates of 
Damascus. Acts ix: 1-5. 



THE STORY OF JOSEPH. 277 

"At midday, O king, I saw in the way a light from 
heaven, above the brightness of the sun, shining round 
about me." Acts xxvi : 13. 

Paul was converted by the appearing of Christ in 
glory; not since Paul's day has a single soul been con- 
verted by the appearing of Christ in glory. 

It has been, and is, by the Gospel alone that con- 
version takes place. 

It is never by the personal visible appearing of Christ 
to individuals. 

Yet Paul draws attenion to this manner of his con- 
version. 

He draws particular attention to it. 

Let us read it : 

"And last of all he was seen of me also, as of one born 
out of due time." I Corinthians xv : 8. 

Born out of due time is ahead of the time. 

Now let it be remembered that when our Lord 
appeared to Paul he spoke to him not in Greek but in 
the Hebrew tongue; more than that, he addressed him 
by his Hebrew name, Saul. 

Thus Paul was converted as a Hebrew. 

Paul takes particular pains after his conversion to 
identify himself as a Hebrew, an Israelite. 

"For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, 
of the tribe of Benjamin." Romans xi: 1. 

Paul was converted as a Hebrew, an Israelite. 

He was converted as a Hebrew, as an Israelite, by the 
Appearing of Christ. 

His conversion is a witness that others will be con- 
verted as he was ; even, by the Appearing of the Lord. 

But Gentiles are not to be converted that way in this 
age. 

In this age the Gentiles are to be converted only 
through the preaching of the Gospel. 



278 THE STORY OF JOSEPH. 

If the Gentiles are not to be converted by the appear- 
ing of Christ in this age, then it must be the Hebrew's, 
and, particularly, the Jews. 

But this is not the age for the conversion of the 
Hebrews, as such, by the personal, visible appearing of 
Christ. 

This is the time for the "taking out" of the Church 
through the faith of the Gospel ; and particularly, the 
taking of it out from among the Gentiles. 

The time for the conversion of the Hebrews as He- 
brews therefore, is still future. 

This is not their time:. 

Paul says that as a Hebrew he was born out of the 
due time, ahead of time. 

Paul's conversion as a Hebrew was ahead of Hebrew 
time. 

If then Paul was converted as a Hebrew ahead of the 
time; if he was, so to speak, set out in the front line 
where all the world might see how as a Hebrew he was 
converted, then surely he is a pattern, a model of the way 
the rest of the Hebrews will be converted in the "due 
time." 

As Paul was converted not by the Gospel but by the 
personal, visible appearing of Christ, so must the 
Hebrews as such, as a people, a nation, be converted. 

As a nation they will never be converted by the 
Gospel ; we are specifically told that "as concerning the 
gospel they are enemies for our (the Gentiles') sakes." 

Among the Jews to-day it is an "election, beloved for 
the Father's sake," who believe the Gospel and are re- 
ceived into the body of Christ. 

But the Jews as a people must be converted as Paul, 
the pattern, not by believing the testimony of the Gospel 
concerning the Messiah, but by seeing Him whom they 
pierced, as it is written : 



THE STORY OF JOSEPH. 279 

"Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall 
see him, and they also which pierced him." Revela- 
tion i : 7. 

This appearing of Christ is a Second Coming. 

At the Second Coming the Lord Jesus Christ will be 
revealed to his people the Jews, and accepted by them. 

Thus we get back to the type in Joseph. 

Joseph was revealed in his true glory to his brethren 
the second time. 

When Joseph zvas made known to his brethren the 
second time he had a close and tender interview with 
them. 

There is nothing more tender and beautiful than the 
story of that interview as the Spirit records it for us : 

"Then Joseph could not refrain himself before all them 
that stood by him; and he cried, Cause every man to go 
out from me. And there stood no man with him, while 
Joseph made himself known unto his brethren. 

And he wept aloud : and the Egyptians and the house 
of Pharaoh heard. 

And Joseph said unto his brethren, I am Joseph : doth 
my father yet live? 

And his brethren could not answer him ; for they were 
troubled at his presence. 

And Joseph said unto his brethren, Come near to me, 
I pray you. And they came near. And he said, I am 
Joseph your brother, whom ye sold into Egypt. 

Now, therefore, be not grieved, nor angry with your- 
selves, that ye sold me hither ; for God did send me before 
you, to preserve life. 

For these two years hath the famine been in the land ; 
and yet there are five years, in the which there shall 
neither be earing nor harvest. 



280 THE STORY OF JOSEPH. 

And God sent me before you, to preserve you a pos- 
terity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great de- 
liverance. 

So now it was not you that sent me hither, but God : and 
he hath made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his 
house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt. 

Haste ye, and go up to my father, and say unto him, 
Thus saith thy son Joseph, God hath made me lord of 
all Egypt: come down unto me, tarry not. 

And thou shalt dwell in the land of Goshen, and thou 
shalt be near unto me, thou, and thy children, and thy 
children's children, and thy flocks, and thy herds, and all 
that thou hast : 

And there will I nourish thee, for yet there are five 
years of famine, lest thou, and thy household, and all that 
thou hast, come to poverty. 

And, behold, your eyes see, and the eyes of my brother 
Benjamin, that it is my mouth that speaketh unto you. 
(What a wonderful double type is here: Joseph to them 
has been dead, and now he is endeavoring to convince 
them that he, Joseph, is alive ; that it is he, himself, and 
not another: how beautifully anticipative of that other 
scene where the true Joseph seeks to convince his brethren 
that he is alive from the dead ; that it is he, himself, and 
not another.) 

And ye shall tell my father of all my glory in Egypt, 
and of all that ye have seen ; and ye shall haste, and bring 
down my father hither. 

And he fell upon his brother Benjamin's neck, and 
wept; and Benjamin wept upon his neck. 

Moreover, he kissed all his brethren, and wept upon 
them : and after that, his brethren talked with him." 
Genesis xlv: 1-15. 

Not a word can be added to the simplicity and beauty 



THE STORY OF JOSEPH. 281 

of that description. Yet beautiful and deeply touching 
as it is, it is but a shadow of that other moment when the 
real Joseph shall be made known to his brethren. 

Read what the prophet says in anticipating that mo- 
ment : 

"And they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, 
and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his 
only son, and shall be in bitterness for him as one that is 
in bitterness for his first son." Zechariah xii: 10-12. 

"And one shall say unto him, What are these wounds in 
thine hands? Then he shall answer, Those with which 
I was wounded in the house of my friends." Zechariah 
xiii : 6. 

Then will that wonderful chapter, the Fifty-third of 
Isaiah, be understood in all its depths of meaning. 

For then will repentant Judah take up the chapter and 
make its sublime language the language of their sorrow- 
ful, yet believing confession. 

Then will they cry : 

"We hid as it were our faces from him ; he was de- 
spised, and we esteemed him not. 

Surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sor- 
rows (yes, through all these ages their sorrow has been 
a deep burden on his soul) : yet we did esteem him 
stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. 

But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was 
bruised for our iniquities ; the chastisement of our peace 
was upon him ; and with his stripes we are healed. 

All we, like sheep, have gone astray ; we have turned 
every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on 
him the iniquity of us all." 

It will be an interview the like of which the world has 
never seen ; that moment when repentant Judah shall bow 
down with tear-wet cheeks before him who was, the 
crucified. 



282 THE STORY OF JOSEPH. 

In that hour they will bemoan the crime of the cross. 

And the loving and tender Joseph will seek to comfort 
them, showing them that God in his eternal purpose was 
behind their fall ; showing them that terrible and inex- 
cusable as it was, God has made that great hour of dark- 
ness and blindness on their part to turn to the enlighten- 
ment and enrichment of the Gentile world. 

What words of comfort he will give them, what assur- 
ance of his love. 

Then the prophecy of Zechariah will be fiulfilled : 

"In that day there shall be a fountain opened to the 
house of David, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for 
sin and uncleanness." Zechariah xiii: I. 

Judah and his brethren zvere brought to know Joseph 
before the rest of the household of Jacob. 

The prophecy is that Judah shall be saved first. 

"The Lord also shall save the tents of Judah first." 
Zechariah xii : 7. 

Joseph sends for Jacob after he has revealed himself 
to Judah and his brethren. 

In Scripture, Judah stands for Judah and Benjamin 
considered together. 

You will note that it is Judah and Benjamin who are 
made prominent in the revelation of Joseph. 

Jacob in prophetic language signifies the Ten Tribes. 

Sending for Jacob and his household, in typical lan- 
guage, is sending for the Ten Tribes of Israel. 

Precisely as the type brings Judah before the self-dis- 
closed Joseph and then Jacob or Israel is brought into 
the land into the presence of Joseph, so the Scriptures 
clearly teach us that after the Lord comes to repentant 
Judah and is received by them at Jerusalem, he will send 
for the remaining household of Jacob, for the lost and 
wandering tribes of Israel, to come into the land to own 
and greet him. 



THE STORY OF JOSEPH. 283 

''And they shall bring all your brethren for an offering 
unto the Lord, out of all nations." Isaiah lxvi : 20. 

In passing it may be said that the account of the 
journey of these lost tribes as they seek to return to their 
own land to greet the manifested Joseph, is given in 
Ezekiel xx : 34-38. 

Also, Isaiah 35th chapter. 

After the revelation of Joseph, his brethren go forth to 
proclaim in the land of Canaan that he is alive and is the 
ruler in the land of Egypt. 

"And they went up out of Egypt, and came into the 
land of Canaan, unto Jacob their father ; 

And told him, saying, Joseph is yet alive, and he is 
governor over all the land of Egypt." Genesis xlv : 
25, 26. 

They went forth preaching good news. 

That good news had two parts : 

Joseph was alive. 

Joseph was a king. 

Joseph who had been reported dead, and believed to 
be so through all these years by his brethren, was alive 
and reigning in power in the great Egyptian world. 

After our Lord returns and has gathered all Israel 
unto him according to covenant in the promised land, he 
will send them forth to be the missionaries of the world ; 
they will go forth and preach the Gospel of resurrection, 
the Gospel of the man alive from the dead; they will 
proclaim that this man alive from the dead is returned 
unto the world from whence he had been rejected, and 
is reigning in power in the land of promise; they will 
invite all nations to come up to worship the true Joseph, 
the king, in his glory at Jerusalem. 

"Ye shall be named the priests of the Lord ; men shall 
call you the ministers of our God." Isaiah lxi : 6. 



284 THE STORY OF JOSEPH. 

"Yea, many people and strong nations shall come to 
seek the Lord of hosts in Jerusalem, and to pray before 
the Lord. 

Thus saith the Lord of hosts, in those days it shall 
come to pass, that ten men shall take hold, out of all 
languages of the nations, even shall take hold of the 
skirt of him that is a Jew, saying, We will go with you ; 
for we have heard that God is with you." Zechariah 
viii : 22, 23. 

What wonderful facility they will have. 

The people of the polyglot tongue! 

Speaking all the languages of earth, they will go forth 
and tell that he whom they denied and nailed on a cross, 
is alive; he whom they rejected as the king of the Jews, 
is on the throne of all Israel ; he is the King of Kings, 
and Lord of Lords. 

His name in that day shall be Emmanuel, God with us ; 
the land shall be Emmanuel's land, the land of the God 
who is with us. 

Joseph makes ready his chariots and goes forth to meet 
Jacob {Israel) in the land of Goshen. 

This is really the epiphany of Joseph. 

He reveals himself in splendor and kingliness to his 
people. 

He meets Judah in Goshen first, and then meets his 
father, the household of Jacob. 

This is a representation of the truth as we have already 
seen it. 

It is the coming of Christ in his glory to meet Judah 
first, and then all Israel. 

Our attention is specially drawn to his appearing to 
the people in chariots of glory. 

So of the greater Joseph we read : 

"For, behold, the Lord will come with fire, and with 
his chariots like a whirlwind." Israel lxvi : 15. 



THE STORY OF JOSEPH. 285 

Joseph settles and establishes his brethren and the 
household of Jacob in the land of Goshen. 

"And they came into the land of Goshen." Genesis 
xlvi : 28. 

"And thou shalt dwell in the land of Goshen." 
Genesis xlv : 10. 

"And Israel dwelt in the land of Egypt, in the country 
of Goshen." Genesis xlvii : 27. 

Goshen was the best part of the land of Egypt. 

This is the declaration of Pharaoh. 

"The land of Egypt is before thee : in the best of the 
land make thy father and brethren to dwell ; in the land 
of Goshen let them dwell." Genesis xlvii : 6. 

Egypt is a type of the world. 

Goshen as the best part of Egypt is typically the best 
part of the world. 

It is, typically speaking, the most favored land. 

The most favored land in fact must, logically, be the 
land which the Lord shall select for the true Joseph and 
his people. 

That land therefore must be Palestine. 

And it is. 

It is the land that is always under the eyes of the Lord. 

"But the land whither ye go to possess it, is a land of 
hills and valleys, and drinketh water of the rain of 
heaven ; 

A land which the Lord thy God careth for: the eyes 
of the Lord thy God are always upon it, from The 

BEGINNING OF THE YEAR EVEN UNTO THE END OF THE 
YEAR." 

Characteristically, Palestine is called Joseph's land. 
This may be seen in the blessing which Jacob before 
dying gives to Joseph. 



286 THE STORY OF JOSEPH. 

"And of Joseph he said, Blessed of the Lord be his 
land." Deuteronomy xxxiii : 11-15. 

In this land God will indeed settle them that they may 
no more be plucked up forever. Ezekiel xxxvii : 21-28. 
Jeremiah xxxi: 31, 40. Jeremiah xxxii : 40, 41. Jere- 
miah xxxiii: 7-26. Amos ix: 14, 15. 

After Joseph and his brethren are settled in the land of 
Goshen, the Egyptians {that is to say, the Gentiles) on 
account of the famine, offer to sell themselves to him for 
bread, and through him become the bondmen of Pharaoh. 
Genesis xlvii : 13-25. 

Joseph buys their lands and themselves in exchange of 
corn and bread. 

Joseph buys them for Pharaoh, but they really belong 
to Joseph as the "lord of all Egypt." 

In belonging to Joseph they belong to Joseph's kindred. 

Thus the Gentiles in Egypt were practically the bond- 
men of the Jews. The word of God foretells that this 
will be the condition of the Gentile world, when the Jew 
has been exalted to the place of power under the coming 
Messiah of Israel, the Christ. 

"And the house of Israel shall possess them (the 
Gentiles) in the land of the Lord for servants and hand- 
maids ; and they shall take them captives, whose captives 
they were ; and they shall rule over their oppressors." 
Isaiah xiv: 1, 2. 

"For the nation and kingdom that will not serve thee 
(Israel) shall perish; yea, those nations shall be utterly 
wasted." Isaiah lx: 12. 

All Egypt at the last owns Joseph as the Saviour-Lord. 

"And they said, thou hast saved our lives." Genesis 
xlvii : 25. 

So the day is coming when the knowledge of the Lord 
shall cover the earth as the waters cover the face of the 



THE STORY OF JOSEPH. 287 

deep; he will be owned and acknowledged by all the 
world as the alone Saviour and Lord. Ps. lxxii : 10. Ps. 
ii: 8. Philippians ii : 9-1 1. 

At the close of this story Jacob is seen giving forth his 
blessing to all. Genesis, 49th chapter. 

Scripture teaches that when the wanderings of Jacob 
are over; when the children of Israel are finally settled 
in their inheritance under their king, they will become 
the fruitful source of blessing to the whole earth ; and 
then will be fully justified that saying of our Lord : 

"Salvation is of the: Jews." John iv : 22. 

"And the remnant of Jacob shall be in the midst of 
many people, as a dew from the Lord, as the showers 
upon the grass." Micah v: 7. 

"And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to 
the brightness of thy rising." Isaiah : 1-3. 

Joseph's brethren at the last put him in the place of 
God, as the representative of God. 

And his brethren also went and fell down before his 
face; and they said, Behold, we be thy servants. 

And Joseph said unto them, Fear not : for am I in the 
place of God?" Genesis 1: 18, 19. 

Yes, the time is coming when like Joseph's brethren 
all Israel will fall down before the Lord Jesus Christ in 
his glory and say : 

'%o, this is our God ; we have waited for him, and he 
will save us ; this is the Lord, we have waited for him, we 
will be glad and rejoice in his salvation." Isaiah xxv: 

6-9. 

Like Thomas they will cry ; 
"My Lord, and My God."' 
The name of Joseph signifies Addition. 
Addition is Increase. 

And "Increase" is the very word which describes the 
unfolding kingdom and glory of the infinite Joseph. 



288 THE STORY OF JOSEPH. 

"Of the increase of his government and peace there 
shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his 
kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment 
and with justice, from henceforth even forever." Isaiah 
ix: 7. 



THE STORY OF JOSEPH IN THE CONCRETE. 

1. He is the son of Jacob's old age. 

2. He is the well-beloved of the Father. 

3. He wears a coat of many colors. 

4. He has visions of coming rulership and walks in 
the light of it. 

5. He is the called and sent of the Father. 

6. He responds to the Father as one who delights to 
do his will. 

7. He is sent by the Father to seek his wandering 
brethren. 

8. His first manifestation is made to the shepherds. 

9. He finds his brethren in the land of law and cere- 
mony, in Dothan. 

10. He becomes a wanderer in the "field." 

11. His brethren hate him and take counsel to kill him. 

12. They mock and despise him. 

13. They reject him and sell him to the Ishmaelites. 

14. He is cast into the pit without water. 

15. He is taken out of the place of death alive. 

16. He is taken into a "far country." 

17. Judah finds his grave empty but does not know 
that he has risen from the place of death, that he has been 
raised. 

18. In the far country he is exalted to the throne of 
power. 



THE STORY OF JOSEPH. 289 

19. While rejected by his brethren and an outcast from 
his native land, he gets a Gentile Bride. 

20. While he is the despised and rejected one of his 
brethren, he becomes a Saviour unto the Gentile world. 

21. He takes his Gentile Bride to the throne before the 
tribulation falls on his brethren. 

22. The tribulation, the day of Jacob's trouble, comes 
in after Joseph has put his Gentile Bride on the throne. 

23. When his brethren are in the midst of their afflic- 
tion, and at the hour when Jacob says all these things 
are against him, Joseph makes himself known in deliver- 
ing power to his brethren. 

24. Joseph is only recognized and owned by his breth- 
ren "the second time." 

25. He goes forth with the chariots of glory to meet 
Judah in the chosen land. 

26. After Joseph appears in glory Jacob comes with 
all his remaining household into the land. 

27. Joseph establishes his brethren in the chosen land. 

28. After Joseph and his brethren are established in the 
chosen land the Gentiles become subject unto the Jew. 

29. After he is established in the land, Jacob (Israel) 
becomes a fruitful centre of blessing to all. 

30. Joseph at the end is owned of his brethren as in 
the place of God, as God manifest in the flesh unto them. 

31. The bowing down of Joseph's brethren is the 
climacteric fulfillment of all the dreams and visions that 
had gone before on Joseph. 

32. His name signifies an endless increase in glory. 

To him who studies this "concrete" reverently, on 
bended knees, and with open Bible before him, each line 
will become a volume of prophetic revelation, and make 
manifest an Antitypical verification. 



THE UNRENT VEIL. 



Cbe Unrent Utih 



The Apostle Paul tells us in Hebrews x: 20, that the 
veil which hung before the most holy place in the Taber- 
nacle was a type of the flesh, that is to say, of the hu- 
manity of Christ. 

It was known as the "Beautiful" veil. 

It hung as a covering before the typical presence of 
God in the most holy place. 

Symbolically, God dwelt behind the veil. 

As the veil sets forth the humanity of Christ, it spe- 
cifically teaches that the humanity of Christ was the veil 
of Godhead. 

God was enveiled in Christ. 

So long as this veil hung down it shut men out from 
God. 

So long as Christ walked the earth in his beautiful and 
perfect humanity he shut men out from God. 

And this is self evident. 

For, if the humanity of Christ is the standard 
humanity ; if the humanity of Christ is the humanity 
alone in which God will consent to dwell; if the human- 
ity of Christ is the only kind of humanity that can ap- 
proach God, then the humanity of Christ is a barrier to 
the ordinary sons of men. 

The perfect humanity of Christ is a witness to the 
separation of the natural man from God. 

The Incarnation of Christ while it proclaims God in 
his humanity, acts as a barrier to all who do not oossess 
that humanity. 

You may admire the beautiful veil. 

You may draw near and find it perfect. 



293 



294 THE UNRBNT VEIL. 

But the more beautiful, the more perfect, the clearer 
it will be that it shuts out God. 

Admire Jesus Christ as he walked on earth. 

Find him perfect, as you will. 

The more perfect, the more evident that your humanity 
and his are distinct : that there is nothing in common. 

The perfect humanity of Jesus Christ is an infallible 
witness to the separation between the natural man and 
God. 

The beautiful veil then teaches the startling truth that 
the Incarnation does not bring man to God; it does not 
bring God to man. 

Incarnation neither brings man into union with God, 
nor God into union with man. 

The life of Christ as he lived it on the earth was a 
barrier to men, shutting them out from God. 

With all the beauty and perfection of his life he is 
constantly saying by it : 

"Except ye be as holy, sinless, and perfect as I am, ye 
cannot even see God." 

As long as the veil hung down it shut man out from 
the presence of God. 

Jesus Christ as long as he walked the earth in his 
perfect humanity shut men out from God. 

Only when the beautiful veil was stained with the 
blood of sacrifice could it be put aside and entrance be 
made into the presence of God. 

It was not the beauty of the veil that made entrance 
into the presence of God possible. 

No ! Not until that veil was stained with the blood 
of a victim could it be put aside, and the worshipper 
enter the shekinal presence. 

A man might stand before it and admire it; he might 
even copy it, and produce a symphony of similar colors, 



THE VNRENT VEIL. 295 

but there was only one way in which he could put it 
aside, find it a doorway, and enter the presence of the 
God of Israel, and that was by staining the veil with 
blood. 

Let it hang down in shining beauty; let it be un- 
stained by blood ; let its very stainlessness attract ; yet, 
by that very stainlessness and beauty it would say in 
inexorable language : 

"Ye cannot enter here." 

It is not by the beautiful life of Christ that we may 
enter the presence of God. 

It is not by an attempt to copy the sweet perfections of 
that life. 

Nay. It is only when the perfect humanity of Christ 
is stained with crimson of his blood, that it becomes a 
doorway into the presence of God. 

Only by putting the blood of sacrifice on the veil could 
it be put aside, and turned into a doorway of entrance 
into the presence of God. 

Not by the life he lived in spotless humanity does 
Jesus Christ give liberty and boldness to enter the 
presence of God. 

Only when his humanity is covered by the blood of 
sacrifice; only when his flesh is stained with his own 
blood of atonement, can the way into the presence of 
God be opened. 

Listen to holy Scripture : 

"Boldness (liberty) to enter into the holiest by the 
Blood of Jesus. 

By a new and living way, 

Which he hath consecrated (opened) for us, 

Through the: veil, that is to say, His flesh." 
Hebrews x: 19, 20. 

Mark it well ; 



296 THE UNRBNT VEIL. 

It is through the: veil by the; blood of Jesus. 

Not by the earthly life of Christ then do we enter into 
the presence of God, but by the sacrificial death of 
Christ. 

It was only when that veil was stJained with the blood 
of atonement, that the way into the holiest of all was 
made open. 

It is only when the humanity of Christ is stained 
with the blood of his own atonement, that the way into 
the holiest of all on high was made open. 

Not till the veil of the temple was rent in twain, was 
the way into the presence of God made open before all 
the world. 

The veil of the temple was not rent in twain till Jesus 
died. 

It was rent in twain at the very hour when he died. 

He died at the very hour when the sacrificial lamb, 
which was a type of himself, died on the altar. 

At the hour when the lamb died, Jesus the Christ of 
God died. 

At the hour when Jesus died, the veil, which was a 
type of his flesh, was rent in twain. 

At the very hour when it was rent in twain, it was 
covered with the blood of a lamb. 

Jesus Christ is the lamb of God. 

Jesus Christ was the veil of God. 

Jesus Christ as the veil of God was rent by nail and 
spear, and covered with his own atoning blood. 

When Jesus the veil of God was thus rent and stained 
with blood, the way into the presence of God was opened 
for all who could come unto God by him. 

Not by the unstained, unrent veil, do we enter into the 
presence of God. 

We enter in only, by the blood of the rent veil. 



THE RENT VEIL. 



Cbe Rent UeiL 



The account of the rending of the veil of the temple 
is given by three of the evangelists. 

"And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain, 
from the top to the bottom." Matthew xxvii : 46-52, 

"And the veil of the temple was rent in twain, from the 
top to the bottom." Mark xv : 38. 

"The veil of the temple was rent in the midst." Luke 
xxiii : 45. 

The veil was rent while hanging up between heaven 
and earth. 

Like that veil, the Son of God was hung up between 
the heaven and the earth. 

He was hung on the accursed tree. 

"Being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed 
is every one that hangeth on a tree." Galatians iii: 13. 

The veil of the temple was rent in twain from top to 
bottom at the time of Christ's death. 

According to tradition, that veil was so strong that two 
pairs of oxen attached to either edge and driven in op- 
posite directions could not pull it apart. 

Hanging clown loosely, therefore, it would require 
something above nature to have rent it in the manner de- 
scribed. 

The fact that it was rent from the top to the bottom, 
and not from the bottom to the top, is a declaraion that 
it was not only above nature, but by the hand of God. 

The death of Christ was not, in the last analysis, ac- 
cording to nature or by the hand of man ; it was from 
above, and by the hand of God, 



299 



300 THE RENT VEIL. 

"Thou hast brought me into the dust of death." 
Psalm xxii: 15. 

"For Thine: arrows stick fast in me, and thy hand 
presseth me sore." Psalm xxxviii : 2. 

"Aw, Thy waves and Thy billows are gone over me." 
Psalm xlii: 7. 

"Thy wrath lieth hard upon me." Psalm lxxxviii : 7. 

"It pleased the Lord to bruise him." Isaiah liii : 10. 

"Awake, O sword, against my shepherd." Zechariah 
xiii: 7. 

"Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by ? Behold, and 
see if there be any sorrow like unto 'my sorrow, which is 
done unto me, wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me in 
the day of his fierce anger. 

From above; hath he sent fire into my bones. ■ * * * 
The yoke of my transgressions is bound by his hand." 
Lamentations i: 12-14. 

The veil was rent in twain at the hour of the evening 
sacrifice: 3 o'clock. 

At that hour the lamb was on the altar, Christ was on 
the cross. 

All three, the hour, the lamb, the Christ, were in per- 
fect conjunction. 

The veil was actually rent at the moment when Christ 
cried, "It is finished." 

"When he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded 
up the ghost. 

And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain." 
Matthew xxvii : 50, 51. 

"He said, It is finished; and he bowed his head and 
gave up the ghost." John xix : 30. 

As he hung on the cross he could see the smoke from 
the altar, and knew he was the fulfillment of that sac- 
rifice; wherefore he cried, "It is finished." 



THE RENT VEIL. 301 

As soon as the veil was rent it was changed from a 
barrier into a gatezvay. 

While Christ walked on the earth his perfect life was 
a barrier between God and men. 

Listen to the solemn statement in John xii: 23, 24: 
"Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it 
abideth alone ; but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit." 

Take note of that word, "Abideth alone." 

Yes, in his unsacrificed humanity Christ abideth alone. 

But the moment he dies, then the way is open for re- 
lation to God, for union with Christ in resurrection, and 
for participation in his life; hence, for multiplication of 
sons in his likeness. 

When the veil was rent, the zvay into the holiest of all 
was opened. 

Because of the perfect sacrifice of Christ, the way into 
the presence of God is now opened for all ; but as of old 
the high priest must needs present the blood of an ac- 
complished sacrifice, as his only plea to enter the most 
holy place, so he who would enter before God and wor- 
ship to-day, must come with the blood of the cross as 
his only plea. 

And because the blood of the cross is the blood of an 
accomplished and accepted sacrifice, and has been shed 
so freely for all, he is invited to come with perfect assur- 
ance, and even boldness, in the name of that blood. 

"Having, therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the 
holiest by the blood of Jesus, * * * let us draw near 
* * * in full assurance of faith." Hebrews x: 
19-22. 



A GOLDEN BELL AND A POME- 
GRANATE. 



E Golden Bell ana a Pomegranate. 



"A golden bell and a pomegranate, a golden bell and a 
pomegranate, upon the hem of the robe round about." 
Exodus xxviii : 34. 

Among the many articles of dress which the high priest 
wore was a blue robe called the robe of the ephod. 

Aaron the high priest was a type of the Lord Jesus 
Christ, our high priest. 

Robe is a symbol of character. 

Blue is the color of heaven, a symbol of grace and the 
infinite. 

Taken in its unity the blue robe of the ephod sets forth 
the character of our Lord Jesus Christ. 

It sets him forth in his character of the heavenly man, 
full of grace, and like the blue infinite and eternal. 

That he was a heavenly man, is seen by contrast with 
other men. 

It is seen in the contrast of birth. 

Other men are conceived in sin and shapen in iniquity. 

He was conceived by the Holy Ghost. 

It is seen by contrasting his motives with those of other 
men. 

The radii of human motives are earth and earthly 
things. 

The final motive is self. 

But with him self never came into view. 

In Incarnation it is said that "he emptied himself." 

He said as a constant refrain : "I came not to do mine 
own will, but the will of him that sent me." 

The radius of his life was not earth, but heaven. 

He came to testify of heaven and the Father. 

305 



306 THE GOLDEN BELLS. 

From heaven he came, of heaven he spoke, towards 
heaven he lifted his eyes, and towards heaven he daily 
walked. 

Each day his life was a witness that grace was poured 
out on his lips and flowing from his touch. 

Find such a man born of woman anywhere and you 
have found a miracle. 

Such a man can alone come from the infinite. 

Thus the blue robe of the ephod sets forth Jesus Christ 
as the Infinite, the Heavenly man full of grace. 

On the hem of this blue robe was a string of golden 
bells ; and wherever the high priest walked when he 
walked back and forth, these golden bells gave out their 
sound. 

A bell has a tongue; a bell therefore is the symbol of 
speech, of testimony. 

The golden bells then tells us of the perfect speech, the 
testimony, and the doctrine of the Son of God. 

Perfect was his speech in tone. 

He never lifted up his voice nor cried aloud ; when he 
said peace to the wild storm in Galilee, he spake as softly 
as a mother to her child; when he commanded the 
demons to come out of men, it was with the quiet accents 
of infinite, measureless power; once only did he cry 
out aloud, and that was on the cross ; and that was not 
his own cry but the concentrated agony of every soul for 
whom he endured the forsaking of the Father. 

How perfect was the tone of that caressing word : 
"Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and 
I will give you rest." 

His speech was perfect in wisdom. 

Again and again, when men came to him, and sought 
to entangle him in his speech, his wisdom triumphed over 
them as the morning rises above the night. 



THE GOLDEN BELLS. 307 

His speech was perfect in its intellectual power. 

The intellectuality of his simplest words have never 
been measured. 

To-day the mightiest intellects of the world on bended 
knee, and with reverent gaze, seek to fathom to some de- 
gree the crystal depths, and partially rise to the power, 
of his more than mortal thought. 

His speech was perfect in Doctrine. 

His doctrine was immense; he taught that the God 
of the universe loved men; that among fallen and rebel 
men he sought sons; that so great was his love for men 
and his desire for sons, that he had sent his only begotten 
Son into the world to meet the demand of his righteous- 
ness against them; he had sent him to die, and in his 
death to swallow up all the claims of justice against them ; 
he had sent him to die, in order that he might rise as the 
eternal head and giver of life to men for simple faith in 
his name; he. had sent him into the world to die and 
rise again, that whosoever should believe in him might 
not perish, but have eternal life and heavenly sonship. 

He declared that the cross towards which he journeyed 
should be the pledge of divinest love through all ages, 
and the empty grave, and the risen man, the seals, the 
witnesses, of its triumphant power. 

His speech was perfect in its prophetic forecast. 

The growth, the development of his church, the con- 
dition and the circumstances in it to-day, are simply the 
actual fulfillment of his prophetic word ; while the world 
is moving on in its unbelief, its lawlessness, and appeal 
to arms, even, as he said. 

Those who heard him speak in those far Judean days 
declared : 

"Never man spake like this man." 



308 THE GOLDEN BELLS. 

Every succeeding age has verified and justified their 
wonder. 

Ah ! the golden bells ! the perfect speech ! 

Between each of the golden bells was a pomegranate. 

A pomegranate is the one perfect fruit in nature. 

Fruit in symbolic language stands for deeds. 

The perfect fruit then, reveals the perfect deeds of the 
perfect man. 

Listen to what they said concerning his every deed : 

''He hath done all things well." 

It may seem startling to say, but it is an indisputable 
fact, that our Lord Jesus Christ was not a genius. 

No! 

A genius is one who has great ability in some one par- 
ticular direction ; that one ability rises above all his other 
equipment as the mountain above the plain ; it dwarfs all 
other powers which he may possess ; not infrequently, this 
very exaltation of power, capacity or gift, serves only to 
draw attention to deficiency in some other direction. 

But Jesus Christ did one thing just as well as another; 
if he did one thing well, he did the next thing just as 
well ; he did all things well ; his deeds were the perfect 
fruit of a perfect life. 

Golden bell and pomegranate. 

Perfect words ! perfect deeds ! 

But pomegranate as perfect fruit signifies perfect life. 

There can be no perfect fruit without perfect life. 

The perfect life of the pomegranate could be seen and 
known only when you took a knife and cut it open. 

Then you saw with amaze that it was filled with crimson 
fluid, and in this crimson fluid floated pure white seeds. 

And lo! the perfect life of Jesus of Nazareth was 
never revealed till the sharp point of a Roman spear 



THE GOLDEN BELLS. 309 

pierced his side, opened his heart, and the crimson blood 
flowed forth. 

Then were revealed the pure w T hite seeds of a germinal 
life. 

He himself anticipating that Roman spear had said: 
"Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it 
abideth alone ; but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit." 

By that death upon the cross he satisfied the claims of 
righteousness against the sinner, and in resurrection took 
his place as one filled with the seeds of life for men. 

For two thousand years on the throne of God he has 
been the germinal life of the world. 

Whatever has been spiritual, pure, sweet, and god-like 
through the years of human history since he left us, has 
been due to his white, fair, germinal life on yonder throne. 

The seed life revealed through the crimson of his blood. 

When the high priest went into the sanctuary and 
ministered before God on behalf of the people, though 
out of sight, they knew he was alive, and in the divine 
presence for them. 

And our high priest is out of sight; he is within the 
veil in the upper sanctuary; he ministers for us in the 
divine presence ; he ever liveth to make intercession. 

And how may we know that he is alive and ministering 
for us as we keep our pilgrim way? 

How may we know that his nail-marked body did not 
fall into the dust of Palestine long ago, and that he him- 
self is but a translucent spirit shining afar and helpless, 
as he hears us cry and name his name? 

We may know by the golden bells. 

Each time the high priest moved in the sanctuary here 
below, the golden bells gave forth their sound ; those 
sounding bells were witnesses that he died not, that he 
lived before the Lord. 



310 THE GOLDEN BELLS. 

Each golden bell had a tongue ; many golden bells make 
many golden tongues. 

When Aaron was out of sight the many tongues told 
that Aaron was alive. 

Well ! we got the sound of those golden bells, we heard 
the sound of those many tongues, on the day of Pentecost. 

On the day of Pentecost came tongues of fire and sat 
on each of the disciples. 

The disciples spake, and the people heard in many 
tongues the wonderful works of God. 

There are your golden bells. 

Aye! the Holy Ghost on the day of Pentecost, is the 
fulfillment of the golden bells ringing on the hem of the 
high priest's robe. 

His many tongues rang out sweet golden music to the 
listening ears, from within the upper Holies. 

What music they rang ! 

And what speech they uttered ! 

They said: 

"I am alive and in Heaven." 

"I am alive forevermore, and in Heaven for you." 

Ah ! so many fail to reach the meaning of Pentecost. 

It is the enduement of power for that Church which 
must take the Risen Man's place. 

It is all that. 

But it is far more. 

It is the supreme witness that he is alive, in yonder 
heaven, on the throne of God for us ; for it ought to be 
known and kept clearly in mind, that while the disciples 
were the witnesses of the resurrection, the Holy Ghost 
is the alone witness that he who arose from the dead and 
ascended to heaven, entered within the veil, and is now 
alive on the throne of God, in the Most Holy Place. 

Ah ! the golden bells ! the golden bells ! 



THE GOLDEN BELLS. 311 

The golden bells and the pomegranates were never 
separated. 

Wherever there was a bell there was a pomegranate. 

That is to say : 

With the testimony of the Spirit there must be Fruit 
of the Spirit. 

So was it from that Pentecostal hour. 

From that hour there was a startling new testimony in 
the world : the story of a man who had triumphed over 
death, and now lived at the right hand of God for men. 

And side by side with this testimony of the Spirit, there 
was startling new fruit in the world: the pomegranates 
were seen. 

This was the new fruit seen blooming in the earth * 

Love. 

Joy. 

Peace. 

Longsuffering. 

Gentleness. 

Goodness. 

Faith. 

Meekness. 

Temperance. 

These constituted the perfect fruit, the divine pome- 
granate. 

The bells and the pomegranates, the testimony and the 
fruit, these bore indisputable evidence that in the sanc- 
tuary of God, the man who had walked on earth among 
men, was alive and acting for men. 

As the robe sets forth the character of Christ, and 
those who are truly Christians are partakers of Christ, 
of his life and of his nature; as the robe sets forth 
heavenly mindedness and grace, then, as Christians, we 



312 THE GOLDEN BULLS. 

ought to walk this earth as a heavenly people rilled with 
grace. 

Heavenly ! 

That is what we are who wear his name. 

He has said : "Ye are not of this world." 

An apostle has declared that our citizenship is in 
heaven, not here. 

Our interests are in heaven. 

Our Father is there. 

Our Saviour is there. 

Our friends, many of them, are there. 

Our abiding, unfailing home is there. 

Our source of life and light for this world, even, are 
there. 

The full attainment and realization of immortality will 
be there. 

We ought to walk as a heavenly people. 

We ought not to be afraid of the walk, the end is 
sure, its glory certain. 

We ought to be full of grace. 

Gracious, gentle, tender. 

Full of blessedness and peace. 

That is the blue robe. 

As spiritual priests are we wearing the blue robe? 

Are we wearing the blue robe of heavenly mindedness 
and grace? 

As the golden bells and the pomegranates were on 
the hem of this robe, and bells and pomegranates set 
forth perfect speech, perfect deeds, then our life as 
Christians, ought to be full of perfect speech, perfect 
deeds. 

Is it so with us, we who call ourselves by that "worthy" 
name, "Christian?" 



THE GOLDEN BELLS. 3*3 

As we walk, do we give forth the sound of the golden 
bells? 

The golden bells of perfect speech, perfect words? 

What kind of speech do we use? 

Are our words clean, sane, pure? 

Are our words, golden words of purity, chastity? 

As we walk, do we give forth the sound of a perfect 
testimony ? 

Are we testifying of heaven, of the grace of God, of 
our Lord and Master? 

Are we speaking golden words in the ears of lost and 
dying men, golden words of grace? 

As we walk, do we reveal the pomegranates with the 
bells? 

The perfect fruit. 

The perfect deeds. 

The perfect life. 

Are we doing good, doing good in his name? 

Do our words and our deeds go together? 

As we walk in the professed Christian life, do men 
hear the sound of our golden bells? 

Do men see the beauty and perfection of our pome- 
granates, golden bells and pomegranates, perfect words 
and perfect deeds, proclaiming a heavenly life and a 
gracious character? 



THE STORY OF TWO BIRDS. 



Cbe Story of two Birds. 



"And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 

This shall be the law of the leper in the day of his 
cleansing: He shall be brought unto the priest. 

And the priest shall go forth out of the camp ; and the 
priest shall look, and, behold, if the plague of the leprosy 
be healed in the leper, 

Then shall the priest command to take for him that is 
to be cleansed two birds alive and clean, and cedar wood, 
and scarlet, and hyssop : 

And the priest shall command that one of the birds be 
killed in an earthen vessel over running water ; 

As for the living bird, he shall take it, and the cedar 
wood, and the scarlet, and the hyssop, and shall dip them 
and the living bird in the blood of the bird that was 
killed over the running water ; 

And he shall sprinkle upon him that is to be cleansed 
from the leprosy seven times, and shall pronounce him 
clean, and shall let the living bird loose into the open 
field." Leviticus xiv: 1-7. 

The bird was a sparrow. (So verse 4, on the margin, 
reads.) 

It was to these sparrows undoubtedly that our Lord 
had reference in Matthew x : 29. "Are not two sparrows 
sold for a farthing?" 

He speaks of himself, anticipatively through the Spirit, 
as a sparrow. 

"I watch, and am as a sparrow alone upon the house- 
top." Ps. cii: 7. 

A sparrow was a small and insignificant thing. 



317 



318 THE STORY OF TWO BIRDS. 

Equally insignificant and unattractive did the Son of 
God appear to those for whose sake he came. 

"He was despised, and we esteemed him not." Isaiah 
liii : 3. 

There zvere two birds. 

These set forth, primarily, the two-foldedness of Christ. 

He was from heaven. 

"He that came down from heaven." John iii : 13. 

He was of earth. 

"The man Christ Jesus." I Timothy ii : 5. 

The sparrows must be clean. 

Clean and sinless was the Son of God. 

"Without sin." Hebrews iv: 15. 

The wood was cedar. 

Cedar is fragrant. 

The wooden Roman cross became an altar from 
whence ascended to the throne of God the fragrance of 
an unparalleled devotion, the perfect and pleasing sac- 
rifice of his eternal Son. 

"Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for 
us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling 
savor." Ephesians v : 2. 

There must be scarlet in the offering. 

There is one scarlet that God sees, one scarlet alone ; 
without that color in it no offering can be acceptable to 
God. 

"Without shedding of blood is no remission." He- 
brews ix: 22. 

There must be hyssop. 

This was bound with scarlet twine to the cedar wood, 
and used to apply the blood. 

It was the weakest thing in nature. 

It took hold for life and sustenance on the rock. 

And this is faith. 



THE STORY OF TWO BIRDS. 319 

Faith in itself is nothing, faith is the nexus between 
need and supply, the link between weakness and strength ; 
as the hyssop was the instrumentality for applying the 
blood, so is faith. Without faith it is impossible to please 
God or approach him ; for God wants the blood, the blood 
of his Son, and without faith it is impossible to make the 
blood of avail. 

"Without faith it is impossible to please him." He- 
brews xi : 6. 

"Saved through faith." Ephesians ii : 8. 

The priest went outside the camp to slay the birds. 

He went outside the gate. 

"Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the 
people with his own blood, suffered without the gate." 
Hebrews xiii: 12. 

The priest did everything, the leper did nothing. 

"Not by works of righteousness which we have done." 
Titus iii : 5. 

"By grace are ye saved through faith, * * . * not 
of works." Ephesians ii: 8-10. 

"A man is justified by faith without the deeds of the 
law." Romans iii : 28. 

"Neither is there salvation in any other." Acts iv: 12. 

One bird was killed in an earthen vessel. 

The earthen vessel is a type of the body ? 

"We have this treasure in earthen vessels." II Corin- 
thians iv: 7. 

Thus, tyypically, we have a view of our Lord Jesus 
Christ, slain in his mortal body. 

The bird was slain by command of God. 

It was by the will and command of God that our Lord 
Jesus Christ went to the cross and suffered its igno- 
minious death. 



320 THE STORY OF TWO BIRDS. 

"Became obedient unto death, even the death of the 
cross." Philippians ii : 8. 

"He spared not his own Son." Romans viii : 32. 

"He gave his only begotten Son." John iii : 16. 

"God sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins." 
I John iv : 10. 

The bird was killed over running zvater. 

Running water is a symbol of the word and the spirit 
in operation ; or, of the word made living and active by 
the operation of the Spirit. 

"Except a man be born of water (out of the water) 
and of the Spirit (out of the Spirit), he cannot enter the 
kingdom of God." John iii : 5. 

"Ye are clean through the word which I have spoken 
unto you." John xv: 3. 

"The washing of water by The) word." Ephesians 
v : 26. 

"Out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water." 

(But this spake he of the Spirit.) John vii : 38, 39. 

From these Scriptures it is evident that water is a 
symbol of the word ; living water, or running water, the 
word and the Spirit in operation. 

We learn therefore that Jesus Christ offered himself 
to ^od according to the word, and through the eternal 
Spirit. 

"Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself 
without spot to God." Hebrews ix: 14. 

The living bird zvas dipped in the blood of the dead 
bird. 

The living bird was thus identified with the dead bird ; 
or, to put it in another way: the living bird bore the 
marks and stains of the dead bird. 

No more vital moving picture of the resurrection of 
the Son of God could be given. 



THE STORY OF TWO BIRDS. 321 

In resurrection he bears the marks of the death of the 
cross ; he rises in the body in which he died ; it is in this 
body bearing all the marks of the death through which 
it passed, that he showed himself to his disciples. 

"And when he had thus spoken, he showed them his 
hands and his feet." Luke xxiv : 40. 

"Thomas * * * said unto them, Except I shall 
see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger 
into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his 
side, I will not believe. 

"Then came Jesus * * * . Then saith he to 
Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands ; 
and reach hither thy hand, and thrust into my side." 
John xx : 2J. 

"Every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced 
him." Revelation i : 7. 

"And one shall say unto him, What are these wounds 
in thine hands? Then shall he answer, Those with 
which I was wounded in the house of my friends." 
Zechariah xiii : 6. 
, The living bird was let loose. 

Our Lord Jesus Christ died once for all ; the one 
offering was perfect ; in resurrection he was freed for- 
evermore from judgment and death. 

"Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead, 
dieth no more ; death hath no more dominion over him." 
Romans vi : 9. 

The living bird after being loosed rose up into the air 
towards heaven. 

If the living bird be a type of the resurrection of the 
Lord, then that bird ascending to the upper sky, is the 
silent, but eloquent prophecy, that he would also ascend 
as the living and immortal man to heaven. 



322 THE STORY OF TWO BIRDS. 

"He was taken up ; and a cloud received him out of 
their sight." Acts i : 9. 

The living bird when it rose up into the air towards 
heaven carried with it the blood of the offered sac- 
rifice. 

When our Lord Jesus Christ ascended to heaven and 
sat down on the throne of God, he took with him the 
blood of his own sacrifice, and placed it there as a pre- 
cious and eternal memorial. 

"By his own blood, he entered in once into the holy 
place." Hebrews ix: 12. 

The leper who would be cleansed by the blood of the 
bird must come to the priest. 

He must come to the priest and own his need of 
cleansing. 

The constant admonition and invitation of the Son of 
God is: "Come unto me." 

And in response to a question of the Master, Simon 
Peter once responded: "Lord to whom shall we go? 
thou hast the words of eternal life." John vi : 68. 

He himself has said : "No man cometh unto the* 
Father, but by me." John xiv : 6. 

The priest must apply the blood of the dead bird 
seven times to the leper. 

It is the Lord Jesus Christ the great high priest who 
must apply his own blood in the case of each individual 
sinner who applies to him for cleansing. 

"Unto him that loved us, and washed us From our 
sins in his own blood." Revelation i : 5. 

Seven signifies completeness. 

When the great high priest applies the blood, the ap- 
plication is complete, perfect. 

"The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all 
sin." I John i : 7. 



THE STORY OF TWO BIRDS. 3 2 3 

The blood was finally applied by means of the hyssop. 

Great as is the power of the high priest, willing and 
anxious as he is to apply his cleansing blood to the con- 
demned sinner, he can do so only when that sinner 
believes. Once in his own country, here on earth, he 
could not do many mighty works because of unbelief; 
so, even now in yonder heaven, with the fulness of the 
blood at his command, he is powerless to make that 
blood of avail to those who will not believe. 

When the blood was at last applied, the leper had a 
living and beautiful witness that he was clean in God's 
sight. 

That living witness was the live bird flying in the 
upper heaven, stained with blood of the dead bird. 

If anyone should say unto him : 

"Where is the evidence of your ceremonial cleansing; 
where is the witness that you are satisfactorily clean in 
God's sight?" 

He could point to that bird flying upward and say : 

"Behold, there is the witness of my cleansing; that 
red spot yonder in the blue heavens is my witness ; that 
is my record on high ; I do not point you to myself, but 
to that blood in yonder heaven." 

So to-day, we may point to that man who in heaven 
bears the marks of the cross ; to that throne on which he 
sits, stained with his sacrificial blood, and say: 

"Behold, my evidence, my witness on high." 

Beautiful as was that bird with its stain of blood 
against the skies of blue, beautiful to that leper who saw 
in it his right and title to enter the camp, and share the 
blessings of the people of God, from whom he had been 
so long excluded, more beautiful, and in a comparative 
not possible to utter, is that blood stain in the heart of 



324 THE STORY OF TWO BIRDS. 

the deepest blue of the universe of God, the blood stain 
of him who died for us ; and who, through all the ages 
of eternity, will bear the stigmata of the cross in his 
immortal body, while his throne high and lifted up will 
gleam with its crimson glory. 

This is the witness and the evidence that shall never 
fade. 

"My witness is in heaven, and my record is on high." 
Job xvi : 19. 

"Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, 
yea, rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right 
hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us." 
Romans viii: 34. 



THE PRESENT OR HOLY GHOST 

AGE. 



Oe Present or l>o?y 6bo$t JIge. 

In order to study it intelligently, consider it under 
seven heads : 

1. Beginning. 

2. Ending. 

3. Characteristics. 

4. Purpose of God. 

5. Relation of Christ to this age. 

6. Relation of this age to Christ. 

7. The signs of the end. 



THE BEGINNING. 
The beginning of this age is two-fold : 

1. Secret. "He breathed on them, and saith unto them, 
Receive ye the Holy Ghost." John xx : 22. 

This tremendous act was known only to the disciples. 
It w r as a coming of the Holy Ghost weeks before Pente- 
cost; so far as the world was concerned it was wholly 
secret. 

2. Public. "And suddenly there came a sound from 
heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, * * * and 
there appeared unto them cloven tongues, like fire." Acts 
ii : 2, 3. 

The rushing sound and fiery tongues stand in marked 
contrast to the unseen and silent breath. While the lat- 
ter has all the characteristics of the unseen and secret, 
the former is set before us in terms which indicate the 
reverse; sound, rushing wind, and fire in the shape of 
flaming tongues, as strongly as language can indicate, 
assure us f hat the later coming of the Holy Ghost was 
open and public. 

This was the day of Pentecost. 

327 



328 THE PRESENT AGE. 

THE ENDING. 

The ending of this age is two-fold : 

1. Secret. "The Day of the Lord so cometh as a thief 
in the night." I Thessalonians v : 2. 

The Day of the Lord is an age following this ; it begins 
with the action of a thief, the snatching away of some- 
thing coveted and precious ; that something is the Church ; 
the departure of the Church from the world is the be- 
ginning of the ending of the age; the departure of the 
Church is secret, just as secret as the disappearance of the 
treasure that the thief "snatches" away; the ending of 
this age therefore is on one side of it, secret. 

2. Public. Revelation xix: n; xx: i, 2. 

In these passages the Lord is represented coming in 
public state and splendor from heaven to overthrow Anti- 
Christ and his armies, and openly bind Satan. This dis- 
pensation therefore has an open and a secret ending; in 
relation to the presence and mission of the Church, it 
ends secretly at the Coming of the Lord to take the 
Church out of the earth ; in relation to the time limit for 
the Gentile rule and the blindness of Israel, it ends pub- 
licly at the Coming of Christ with his church to inaugu- 
rate the new age of the "times of Restitution." 



CHARACTERISTICS. 

i. The Presence of the Holy Spirit. 

The Hbly Spirit has always been present in the earth 
moving men, descending upon them, operating in them ; 
but never, as now, taking up his abode and dwelling per- 
manently in men. 

He dwells in Believers as the Comforter. 

"And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you an- 
other Comforter, that he may abide with you forever: 



THE PRESENT AGE. 329 

Even the Spirit of Truth; * * * he shall be in 
you." John xiv : 16, 17. 

He dwells in the Believer as the power and energy of 
God. 

"Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundant- 
ly above all that we ask or think, according to THE power 
that workETH in us." Ephesians iii: 20. 

In the Church corporately. 

He is the Giver of Spiritual gifts. I Corinthians xii : 
4-11. 

He is the true Administrator in the Church, the true 
Vice-gerent of the Lord. 

"As they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy 
Ghost said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work 
whereunto I have called them, * * * so they, 
being sent forth by the Holy Ghost." Acts xiii : 2, 4. 

2. The preaching of the Gospel of Death and Resur- 
rection is a characteristic of this age. 

"Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel; 
* * * how that Christ died for our sins according to 
the Scriptures ; 

And that he was buried, and that he rose again the 
third day according to the scriptures." I Corinthians 
xv : 1-4. 

The Gospel of the Death of Christ, is the Good News 
of Reconciliation. 

"When, we were enemies, we were reconciled to God 
by the death of his Son." Romans v : 10. 

The Gospel of his Resurrection, is the good news that 
we may be saved by his life, that life which rose superior 
to death. Romans v: 10. 

"We shall be saved by his life." 

3. The reign of Grace characterizes this age. 



330 THE PRESENT AGE. 

This is the age in which God is dealing in absolute 
grace with a sinful and rebellious world. 

"The: dispensation op the: grace: op God/' Ephe- 
sians iii : 2. 

"For by grace are ye saved." Ephesians ii : 8, 9. 

4. This is an age of Regeneration ; that is to say, Re- 
generation is a fundamental characteristic of this age of 
the Holy Ghost. 

"Except a man be born of the Spirit he cannot enter 
into the kingdom of God." John iii : 5. 

5. The presence of the Church is a marked and pe- 
culiar characteristic of this age. 

The Church is constituted of all persons who truly be- 
lieve on the Lord Jesus Christ. 

"Ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ 
Jesus." Galatians iii : 26. 

The Church is the Body of Christ through whom he is 
reincarnated on the earth, and becomes the Omnipresent 
Man. 

"Now ye are the body of Christ and members in par- 
ticular." I Corinthians xii : 2J. 

6. This age is characterized by the existence of a 
class of persons called Christians. 

"And the disciples were called Christians first in An- 
tioch." Acts xi: 26. 

A Christian is an unmanifested Son of God. 

"Now are we the sons of God; and it doth not yet 
appear (it is not yet made manifest to the world) what 
we shall be ; but we know that, when he shall appear we 
shall be like him." I John iii : 2. 

7. The building up of a new humanity is a peculiar 
characteristic of this age. 

"One New Man." Ephesians iv: 13. Ephesians iv: 
21-24. 



THE PRESENT AGE. 331 

8. Faith. Faith in this age is the channel of Grace. 
"For by grace are ye saved Through faith." 

Kphesians ii : 8. 

9. The Test Question of the age is one of its strik- 
ing characteristics. 

That test question is: "What think ye of Christ?" 
"What think ye of Christ ? Whose son is he ?" Mat- 
thew xxii: 42. 

10. The separation of Christians from the natural 
side and principles of this age, called "the world!' 

"Ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out 
OF THE world/' John xv : 19. 

"Who gave himself for our sins that he might deliver 
us from this present evil world." Galatians i : 4. 

"Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world, 
is The Enemy oF God." James iv: 4. 

"If any man love the world, the love of the Father is 
not in him." I John ii: 15. 

"The cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the 
world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world." 
Galatians vi : 14. 

"Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers 
* * * Wherefore come out from among them." 

II Corinthians vi: 14-17. 

"Be not conformed To This world." Romans xii: 2. 

These are the ten-fold characteristics of this age. 



THE PURPOSE OF GOD. 

The purpose of God in this age is not the salvation of 
the whole world, but a taking out of the whole world a 
people for his name, a selection, an election. 

"God at the first did visit the Gentiles, to take out of 
them a people for his name." Acts xv: 14. 



332 THE PRESENT AGE. 

RELATION OF CHRIST TO THIS AGE. 
He is a Bridegroom seeking a Bride. 
"He that hath the bride is the bridegroom." John iii 
29. Matthew xxv; 1. Ephesians v; 29-33. 



RELATION OF THIS AGE TO CHRIST. 

1. The Jew. Blind. "Blindness in part is happened 
to Israel until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in." 
Romans xi : 25. 

2. The Gentile. Dead. "And you who were dead in 
trespasses and sins." Ephesians ii: 1. 

3. The Church. Sleeping. "Wherefore he saith, 
Awake thou that sleepest." Ephesians v; 14. 



THE SIGNS OF THE END. 

I. Scoffers, who will mock at the doctrine of the 
Second Coming of Christ. 

"Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last 
day scoffers, walking after their own lusts. 

And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? 
For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as 
they were from the beginning of the creation?" II 
Peter iii: 3, 4. 

2. Conflict between Capital and Labor, 



TESTIMONY OF SAINT JAMES. 

1. Great wealth in the hands of the few. 

2. Wealth hoarded up. 

3. Reduction of wages. 

4. Conflict between Capital and Labor. 

5. Suffering of the rich at the hands of the poor. 
"Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your 

miseries that shall come upon you. 



THE PRESENT AGE. 333 

Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are 
motheaten. 

Your gold and silver is cankered ; and the rust of them 
shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as 
it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the 
last days. 

Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped 
down your fields, which of you is kept back by fraud, 
crieth; and the cries of them which have reaped are en- 
tered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. 

Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been 
wanton; ye have nourished your hearts, as in a day of 
slaughter. 

Ye have condemned and killed the just; and he doth 
not resist you. 

Be patient, therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the 
Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the pre- 
cious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, 
until he receive the earlv and latter rain. 

Be ye also patient ; stablish your hearts : for the: 
coming of the: Lord draweth nigh." James v: 1-8. 



TESTIMONY OF SAINT JOHN. 

3. The Coming of Antichrist. 

"Little children, it is the last time; and as ye have 
heard that Antichrist shall come, even now are there 
many Antichrists; whereby we know that it is the 
last time." I John ii : 18. 

4. The whole world Under Arms. 

"For they are the spirits of devils (demons), working 
miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and 
of the whole world, to gather them to the battle." 
Revelation xvi: 14. 



334 THE PRESENT AGE. 

"Ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars * * * 
for nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against 
kingdom." Matthew xxiv: 6, 7. 

5. The world instead of being in spiritual submission 
to Christ zvill be in organized rebellion against him. 

"And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and 
their armies, gathered together to make war against 
him that sat on The horse." Revelation xix: 19. 



THE TESTIMONY OF SAINT PAUL. 

Departure from the faith. 

Wandering Spirits. 

Spiritualism. 

Religious hypocrisy. 

The doctrine of celibacy. 

Fastings. 

"Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter 
times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to 
seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils (demons) ; 
Speaking lies in hypocrisy ; having their conscience 
seared with a hot iron ; Forbidding to marry, and com- 
manding to abstain from meats, which God hath created 
to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe 
and know the truth. 

For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be 
refused, if it be received with thanksgiving: 

For it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer." 
I Timothy iv : 1-5. 

Perilous times. 

Religious formalism. 

Inordinate love of pleasure among professed Chris- 
tians. 



THE PRESENT AGE. 335 

Godliness persecuted. 

Evil waxing WORSE and worse. 

"This know also, that in the last days perilous times 
shall come. 

For men shall be lovers of their ownselves, covetous, 
boasters, proud, blasphemous, disobedient to parents, un- 
thankful, unholy. 

Without natural affection, truce breakers, false ac- 
cusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are 
good, 

Traitors, heady, high minded, lovers of pleasures 

MORE THAN LOVERS OE God ; 

Having a form of Godliness, but denying the power 
thereof. * * * 

These also resist the truth : 

Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall 
suffer persecution. 

But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and 
WORSE." II Timothy iii : 1-13. 

The Church will reject Doctrinal preaching. 

Christians will seek teachers who will please them. 

Christians will be turned from the truth. 

Christians will be turned to fables. 

"For the time will come when they will not endure 
sound doctrine ; but after their own lusts shall they heap 
to themselves teachers, having itching ears ; 

And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, 
and shall be turned unto fables." II Timothy iv: 1-4. 

A great Apostacy. 

Setting up of Antichrist. 

Deification of a sinful man. 

Revelation of Satan's power. 

Strong delusion. 



336 THE PRESENT AGE. 

Universal acceptance of the Devil's great lie. 

"Let no man deceive you by any means : for that day 
shall not come (the millennium), except there come a 
falling away, first, and that man of sin be revealed, the 
son of perdition; 

Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is 
called God, or that is worshipped ; so that he, as God, 
sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he 
is God. * * * 

For the mystery of iniquity doth already work; only 
he who now letteth (hindereth), will let, until he be 
taken out of the way. 

And then shall that wicked be revealed, whom the 
Lord shall consume with the Spirit of his mouth (see 
Isaiah xi: 4), and shall destroy with the brightness of 
his coming (the epiphany of his parousia, i. e.: the 
brightness, the revelation of his bodily presence). 

Even him whose coming is after the working of Satan, 
with all power and signs and lying wonders, 

And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in 
them that perish; because they received not the love of 
the truth, that they might be saved. 

And for this cause God shall send them strong de- 
lusion, that they should believe a (the) LIE: 

That they might all be damned who believed not The 
truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness." II Thes- 
salonians ii: 1-12. 



THE TESTIMONY OF OUR LORD. 

Wars and rumors of wars. 

Famines. 

Pestilences. 

Earthquakes. 



THE PRESENT AGE. 337 

Persecutions. 

False Teachers. 

Abounding lawlessness. 

Utter defection in Christianity. 

False Christs. 

Great Sorrows. 

The unparalleled Tribulation. 

Existence on e)arth impossible, even to the Elect, 
unless God shall shorten the days of trial. 

Signs and portents in Heaven. Matthew xxiv : 5-30. 

Distress of Nations. 

Perplexity of Nations. 

Universal heart failure. 

"And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, 
and in the stars ; and upon the earth distress of nations, 
with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; 

Men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking 
after those things which are coming on the earth ; for 
the powers of heaven shall be shaken. 

And then shall they see the Son of man coining in 
a cloud with power and great glory. 

And when these things begin to come to pass, then 
look up lift up your heads ; for your redemption 
draweth nigh." Luke xxi : 25-28. 

The old faith will disappear. 

"When the Son of man cometh, shall he find (the) 
faith on the earth ?" Luke xviii : 8. 



HOW THE END WILL COME TO THE CHURCH. 

1. The Church will be taken azvay before the evil 
culminates. 

"I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, 
which shall come upon all the world." Revelation 
iii: 10. 



338 THE PRESENT AGE. 

"And she brought forth a man child who was to rule 
all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught 
up unto God and to his throne." Revelation xii: 5. 

The man child is the Christ; the Christ is constituted 
of head and body, as making the perfect man ; as the 
Head has been caught up, the Body, the Church, must be 
also. 

2. The Church will be "caught up." 

"Then we which are alive and remain, will be caught 
up together." I Thessalonians iv: 17. 

The Greek word for "caught up" is harpagasometha, 
from harpazo, to "snatch away." 

3. The Church will be caught up in distinct order. 

a. The dead in Christ will be raised first. 

b. Then the living will be changed. I Thessalonians 
iv: 16, 17. 

The Scriptures give some striking examples of trans- 
lation. 

"And Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for 
God took him." Genesis v: 24. 

Elijah was translated. II Kings ii: 11. 

Our Lord Jesus Christ was taken up. 

"And when he had spoken these things, while they 
beheld, he was taken up." Acts i : 9. 

The Apostle Paul was caught up. 

"I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago 
* * * such an one caught up to the third heaven." 
II Corinthians xii : 2. 

4. The Church will be caught up at the sound of the 
trump. 

We have here a Roman military figure. 

The Imperator, or General, gave the command, the 
next in authority took it up and passed it on to the 
trumpeters, who sounded the order. 



THE PRESENT AGE. 339 

Just so, Christ as the mighty Imperator will give the 
word of command to the Archangel ; he will command 
the angel trumpeter to sound ; then the great army, those 
who have been sleeping so to speak on their arms, and 
the living who have remained in the ranks and on guard, 
will respond ; the dead, and then the living. 

The dead will come forth in rank and order as per- 
fectly as an army on parade ; there will be no confusion ; 
no one will find himself in a rank belonging to another. 

"Every man in his own order." I Corinthians xv : 23. 

The word "order" is tdgmati; succession, rank, divi- 
sion, band. 

5. The Church will be caught up in clouds as zvcts the 
Lord. 

"Caught up in the clouds." I Thessalonians iv: 17. 

6. We shall be caught up together. 

7. The Church will be caught up to meet him. 

"To ME£T the: Lord in th£ air." I Thessalonians 
iv: 17. 

The word "meet" signifies to go forth in order to 
return with. 

The word is apdntasin; the same word in Matthew 
xxv : i, 6. 

"Went forth to meet the bridegroom." Evidently 
with the intention of returning with him. 

"And from thence, when the brethren heard of us, they 
came to meet us as far as Appii forum." 

The brethren came out to meet Paul in order that 
they might return in his company to the city. 

8. The event will be secret to the world. I Thessa- 
lonians v: 2. 

9. The effect on the world of this Translation. 
Surprise, confusion. 



340 THE PRESENT AGE. 

The Holy Spirit as the possible blessing to the world 
will be taken away. 

"He who now letteth (hindereth, hindereth the rev- 
elation of Antichrist), will let (hinder) until he (the 
Holy Spirit) BE Taken out of the way." II Thessa- 
lonians ii: 7. 

Restraint of evil will be gone, Antichrist will rapidly 
be made manifest as the head of all evil. 



HOW THE END WILL COME TO THE WORLD. 

By the Appearing of Christ in Flaming Fire, and 
Vengeance Judgment. 

"In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know 
not God, and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord 
Jesus Christ." II Thessalonians i : 7-9. 

It will be a time of terror. 

"Sudden destruction cometh upon them * * * 
they shall not escape." I Thessalonians v: 3. 

"Howl ye ; for the day of the Lord is at hand ; it 
shall come as a destruction from the Almighty." Isaiah 
xiii: 6. 



OUR ATTITUDE. 

Not looking for signs, but zvaiting for the Son. 

A beautiful key word and picture in Luke viii : 40. 

"And it came to pass, that, when Jesus was re- 
turned, THE PEOPLE GLADLY RECEIVED HIM ; FOR THEY 
WERE ALL WAITING FOR HIM." 



THE TIMES OF THE RESTITUTION 
OF ALL THINGS. 



De times of tbe Restitution of all 

things. 



A els Hi: 21. 



There are three other subordinate or relative titles for 
this dispensation.: 

The Last Day. 

The Day of the Lord. 

The Regeneration. 

It is evident that they refer to the same period because 
each begins with the same event : The Coming of Christ. 

Times of the Restitution. 

"And he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was 
preached unto you ; 

Whom the heavens must receive until (that is till the 
time arrives) the times of restitution." Acts iii : 20, 21. 

When the moment for the restitution period arrives 
he will come; thus the Restitution is introduced by the 
Coming of Christ. 

Last Day. 

"And this is the Father's will which hath sent me, 
that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, 
but should raise it up again at the last day." 

"I will raise him up at the last day." John vi: 39, 
40, 44. 

Resurrection of those who are Christ's takes place at 
his coming. "They that are Christ's at his Coming." 
I Corinthians xv : 23. 

Thus the Last Day begins with the Coming of Christ. 

The Day of the Lord. 

343 



344 TIMES OF RESTITUTION. 

"The day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the 
night." I Thessalonians v : 2. 

Matthew 25, tells us that the Lord is coming as a 
Bridegroom for his Church in the night; Hebrew time 
begins in the night ; the day begins in the evening. 

The Coming of the Lord therefore begins the day of 
the Lord. 

The Regeneration. 

"And Jesus said unto them, Verily I say unto you. 
That ye which have followed me, in the regeneration, 
when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his 
glory." Matthew xix : 28. 

Matthew xxv : 31, tells us when Christ shall sit in the 
throne of his glory. 

"When the Son of man shall come in his glory; and 
all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the 
throne of his glory." 

As the regeneration is to be when Christ shall sit upon 
the throne of his glory, and He will sit upon the throne 
of His glory when he comes, then the Regenera- 
tion will begin at the Coming of Christ the second time. 

These several days end with the same event, i. e.: 
the end of time and the bringing in of the New Heavens 
and the New Earth. 



TEACHING VALUE OF EACH NAME. 

East Day. 

The day of the Last Man, the Son of Man ; used par- 
ticularly in respect to beginning, to emphasize the period 
when the Second Man will bring in Resurrection. 

Day of the Eord. 

The day in which the whole universe shall confess 
that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the 
Father. 



TIMES OF RESTITUTION. 345 

It is applied particularly to the moment of Christ's 
appearing in glory. 

It is Vengeance judgment; it is wrath and anger 
against the world. 

''Howl ye for the day of the Lord is at hand; it shall 
come as a destruction from the Almighty." Isaiah 
xiii : 6. 

"For, behold, the Lord will come with fire, and with 
his chariots like a whirlwind, to render his anger with 
fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire." Isaiah 
lxvi: 15. 

"The day of the Lord's anger." Zephaniah ii : 2. 

"The day of wrath, and revelation of the righteous 
judgment of God." Romans ii: 5. 

"The Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with 
his mighty angels ; 

In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know 
not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus 
Christ." II Thessalonians i : 7, 8. 

The Day of the Lord is not to be confounded with the 
Coming of the Lord. 

The Day of the Lord has special reference to the 
public appearing of Christ with his Church, to inaugurate 
the period of judgments that are to follow. 

The Coming of the Lord particularly signifies that 
moment, when he shall descend into the air secretly for 
his Church, to take her out of the way of the judgments 
that are to fall on the earth. 

The Day of the Lord as a title is applied to the whole 
period because it is the period of the Lord's controversy 
with the world. 

The Regeneration. 

The day when the New Creation, the New Genera- 



346 TIMES OF RESTITUTION. 

tion, all who are Regenerated in Christ, shall obtain sway 
over the earth. 

The day whose culmination is the Regeneration of 
Heaven and Earth. 

Times of Restitution. 

The Greek is apokatastdseos, the restoration of a 
thing to its former estate. 

The day in which Jesus Christ as the Last Man shall 
put down all rule and authority and restore all things 
to the rule, the authority, and the glory of God, the 
Father. 

The whole day is a Day of Judgment; a day in which 
all things are judged from God's point of view. 

The key words are: 'Tutting down," "Subduing." 

Thus while the Last Day, Day of the Lord and Re- 
generation, each apply to this dispensation of Restitution, 
the true, supreme, generic title is : 



TIMES OF RESTITUTION. 

The opening key to this dispensation is found in the 
word, "times." 

The Greek word is chronon; it is plural and signifies 
epochs, eras or ages. More than one epoch is thus indi- 
cated. Revelation 20th shows that there are two epochs 
or parts : The Thousand years and After the Thou- 
sand years. In order that the Dispensation may be 
properly studied as a whole, it is necessary to divide the 
subject into three parts. 

The Thousand years. 

After the Thousand years. 

The Things Restored. 



TIMES OF RESTITUTION. 347 

THE THOUSAND YEARS. 

The study of the Thousand years may be divided under 
seven heads. 
The Beginning. 
The Official Title. 
Definition of Title. 
Characteristics. 
God's Attitude. 
Purpose of God. 
The Ending. 

I. The Beginning. The Appearing of Christ and the 
Binding of Satan. Revelation xix: 11-21. 

"And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, 
which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thou- 
sand yfars." Revelation xx: 2. 
2. The Title. The Day of Christ. 

"Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath 
begun a good work in you, will perform it until the Day 
of Jesus Christ." 

"Till the Day of Christ." Philippians i: 6, 10. 

"The Day of Christ." Philippians ii : 16. 

3. Definition of the Title. The day in which Christ, 
the once rejected Messiah, will be owned by repentant 
Israel, and the subdued nations, as the Jewish king, and 
Jewish and Israelitish Lord of the whole earth ; it is the 
day of the Christ, the day of the Messiah. 

Characteristics. These are twenty-one in number. 

They may be separated into three sets of seven each. 

The seven-fold manifestation of the Christ. 

The seven-fold glory of Israel. 

The seven-fold manner of rule. 



348 TIMES OF RESTITUTION. 

THE SEVEN-FOLD MANIFESTATION OF 

CHRIST. 

I. At Jerusalem, as the man who was once crucified 
there. 

"This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into 
heaven, shall so come in like manner." Acts i: H. 

From Jerusalem he ascended, it is to Jerusalem he will 
return. 

"Every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced 
him: and all kindreds of the earth (all the tribes of the 
land; the people of Israel in their own land) shall wail 
(kopsontai, a beating of the breasts, a wailing lamenta- 
tion) because of him." Revelation i: 7. 

"In that day shall there be a great mourning in Je- 
rusalem * * * and the land shall mourn." Zech- 
ariah xii: 11, 12. 

"They shall mourn for him (because of him), as one 
mourneth for his only son." Zechariah xii: 10. 

"Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion: for, lo, I 
come, and I will dwell in the midst of thee/' 
Zechariah ii : 10. 

"Thus saith the Lord, / am returned to Zion, and will 
dwell in the midst of Jerusalem." Zechariah viii : 3. 

"And he said unto me, Son of man, the place of my 
throne, and the place of the soles of my FEET, where 

I WILL DWELL IN THE MIDST OF THE CHILDREN OF 

Israel forever." Ezekiel xliii : 7. 

"The name of the city from that day shall be THE 
Lord is THERE." Ezekiel xlviii : 35. 

After his return and the deliverance and gathering of 
Judah it is said: 

"The Lord dwelleth in Zion." Joel iii: 21. 



TIMES OF RESTITUTION. 349 

"The king of Israel, even the Lord, is in The midst 
OF THEE." Zephaniah iii : 15. 

"And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount 
of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east." 
Zechariah xiv: 4. 

2. As Son of Abraham. Inheritor of the Land of 
Palestine. 

"Jesus Christ, the Son of Abraham." Matthew i: 1. 

To Abraham God said : 

"I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee 
* * * all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting pos- 
session." Genesis xvii : 8. 

"Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises 
made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as 
of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ." Galatians 
iii: 16. 

3. As Son of David, heir of the Throne. 
"Jesus Christ, the Son of David." Matthew i: 1. 
"And the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of 

his Father David: 

And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for- 
ever." Luke i : 32, 33. 

"Upon the throne of David." Isaiah ix: 7. 

4. As Son of Man, executing judgment. 

"And hath given him authority to execute judgment 
also, because he is the son of man." John v: 27. 

5. As four-fold King. 



KING OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

"Behold, a king shall reign in righteousness." Isaiah 
xxxii : 1. 



350 TIMES OF RESTITUTION. 

KING OF ISRAEL. 

"On the next day much people that were come to the 
feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jeru- 
salem, 

Took branches of palm trees, and went forth to meet 
him, and cried, Hosanna! Blessed is Th£ king OF 
Israex." John xii: 13. 



KING OF KINGS. 

"And on his thigh a name written, King of Kings." 
Revelation xix: 16. 



KING OVER ALL THE EARTH. 

"And the Lord shall be King over all the earth; in 
that day shall there be one Lord, and his name one." 
Zechariah xiv : 9. (his name one) : that is, Jesus ; in proof 
read Philippians ii : 10, "At the name of Jesus every knee 
should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and 
things under earth." 

6. As the mighty God, and God the Son. 

"For unto us (Israel) a child is born, unto us a son 
is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder ; 
and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, THE 
mighty God." Isaiah ix: 6. 

"The Lord, that made heaven and earth, bless thee 
out 01? Zion." 

The Lord who will be in Zion at that time is the Lord 
Jesus Christ; he is here affirmed to be, as John in the 
first chapter of his gospel declares, the maker of heaven 
and earth ; and therefore, indeed, the Mighty God. 



TIMES OF RESTITUTION. 351 

"Unto the Son he saith * * * And, Thou, Lord, 
in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth; 
and the heavens are the works of thine hands." He- 
brews i : 8, 10. 

7. As the Supreme Teacher of all the earth. 

"He will teach us of his ways; for out of Zion shall 
go forth the law, and the word of the Lord From Je- 
rusalem." Isaiah ii : 3. 

"Yea, many people and strong nations shall come to 
seek the Lord of hosts in Jerusalem, and to pray 
BEFORE THE Lord." Zechariah viii: 22. 



THE SEVEN FOLD GLORY OF ISRAEL. 

1. Israel and Indah restored to the land under their 
king. 

"Thus saith the Lord God, When I shall have gathered 
the house of Israel from the people among whom they 
are scattered, and shall be sanctified in them in the sight 
of the heathen (Gentiles), then shall they dwell in their 
land that I have given to my servant Jacob." Ezekiel 
xxviii : 25, 26. 

"Thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I will take the 
children of Israel from among the heathen * * * and 
bring them into their own land: 

And I will make them one nation in the land upon the 
mountains of Israel ; and one king shall be king to them 
all ; and they shall be no more Two nations, neither 
shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at 
all * * * 

And David (The Beloved, The Christ), shall be king 
over them." Ezekiel xxxvii: 21-28. 



352 TIMES OF RESTITUTION. 

"For I will take you from among the heathen and 
gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into 
your own land." Ezekiel xxxvi: 24. 

Amos ix : 14, 15. 

"Hear the word of the Lord, O ye nations, and declare 
it in the isles afar off, and say, He that scattered Israel 
will gather him, and keep him, as a shepherd doth his 
flock." Jeremiah xxxi : 10. 

2. Jerusalem will be rebuilt to the Lord. 

"Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that the city 
shall be built to the Lord * * * it shall not be 
plucked up, nor thrown down, any more Forever." 
Jeremiah xxxi : 38, 40. 

"And the city shall be builded upon her own heap." 
Jeremiah xxx: 17-22. 

"Then shall Jerusalem be holy." Joel iii : 17-21. 

"In that day it shall be said to Jerusalem, Fear thou 
not * * * the Lord God in the midst of thee is 
mighty * * * I will make you a name and a praise 
among all people of the earth." Zephaniah iii : 14-20. 

3. The Temple zvill be rebuilt in splendor. 

For an account of this great work read Ezekiel 
chapter xl-xliii inclusive. 

4. The Tzvelve Apostles zvill rule over the reunited 
Twelve Tribes. 

"That ye may eat and drink at my table in my king- 
dom, and sit on thrones, judging (ruling) the TWELVE 
tribes of Israel." Luke xxii: 30. 

"Behold, a king shall reign in righteousness, and 
princes (The Apostles) shall rule in judgment." Isaiah 
xxxii : 1. 

5. Restored and converted Israel zvill be the mission- 
aries to the nations. 



TIMES OP RESTITUTION. 353 

''But ye shall be named the priests of the Lord ; men 
shall call you the ministers of our God." Isaiah 
lxi: 6. 

6. Israel will be the Chamberlains of the King. 
"And there were certain Greeks among them that came 

up to worship at the feast (the passover) : 

The same came therefore (on Palm Sunday, the day 
when Jesus was proclaimed as King of Israel) to Philip 
(a Jew) * * * and desired him, saying, Sir, we 
would see Jesus. 

Philip cometh and telleth Andrew : and again Andrew 
and Philip tell Jesus.'' John xii: 20-23. 

"In those days it shall come to pass, that ten men shall 
take hold out of all languages of the nations (the ten 
nations), even shall take hold of the skirt of him that 
is a Jew, saying, We will go with you ; for we have heard 
that God is with you." Zechariah viii : 23. 

7. Israel will be head over all the nations of the earth. 
"The Lord shall make thee Head and not the Tail." 

Deuteronomy xxviii : 13. 

"For the nation and kingdom that will not serve thee 
shall perish; yea, those nations shall be utterly wasted." 
Isaiah lx: 12. 

"For the Lord will have mercy on Jacob, and will yet 
choose Israel, and set them in their own land ; and the 
strangers (the Gentiles) shall be joined with them, and 
they shall cleave to the house of Jacob. 

And the people shall take them and bring them to 
their place ; and the house of Israel shall possess them 
(the people, the Gentiles) in the land of the Lord for 
servants and handmaids ; and they shall take them cap- 
tives, whose captives they were ; and they shall RUL3 
over THEIR OPPRESSORS." Isaiah xiv : 1, 2. 



354 TIMES OF RESTITUTION. 

"Thy children, whom Thou mayest make Princes in 
all the earth." Ps. xlv: 16. 



THE SEVEN-FOLD MANNER OF RULE. 

i . Christ will rule with a rod of Iron. 

"Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron ; thou shalt 
dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel." Ps. ii : 7-12. 

"He must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his 
feet." I Corinthians xv: 25. 

2. By means of his judgments, the zvorld zvill learn 
righteousness. 

"For when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhab- 
itants of the world will learn righteousness." Isaiah 
xxvi : 9. 

"Who so privily slandereth his neighbor, him will I 
cut off; him that hath an high look and a proud heart 
will I not suffer. 

He that worketh deceit shall not dwell in my house; 
he that telleth lies shall not tarry in my sight. 

I will early (in the first part of his reign) destroy all 
the wicked of the land, that I may cut off all wicked 
doers from the City of the Lord." Ps. ci : 5-8. 

"Verily he is a God that judgeth in the earth." Ps. 
lviii: 11. 

The Thousand years will be a reign of Righteousness." 

Righteousness will not dwell in the earth till after the 
New Heavens and the New Earth. 

"New heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth 
righteousness." II Peter iii: 13. 

3. The Church will reign and rule with Christ. 
"We shall also reign with him." II Timothy ii • 12, 
Hebrews ii : 5-10. 



TIMES OF RESTITUTION. 355 

"When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall 
ye also appear with him in glory." Colossians iii : 4. 

"To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me 
in my throne, even as I also overcame and am set down 
with my Father in his throne." Revelation iii: 21. 

"And hast made us unto our God kings and priests; 
and we shall reign on the earth (over the earth)." Rev- 
elation v: 1 -10. 

"The saints shall judge (rule) the world. I Corin- 
thians vi : 2. 

Corporately, the Church will remain in, and rule from, 
the heavens. 

"But the saints of the most high (high places) shall 
take the kingdom." Daniel vii : 18, 2J. 

"And made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ 
Jesus." Ephesians ii: 6. 

"I go to prepare a place for you." John xiv: 2. 

Individually, Christians may reign on the earth. 

The twelve Apostles will reign on the earth with 
Christ. 

"When the Son of Man shall sit in the throne of his 
glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones judging the 
twelve tribes of Israel." Matthew xix: 28. Luke xxii: 

30. 

"Then came the first * * * And he said unto him, 
have thou authority over ten cities." 

"And he said likewise to him (the second), Be thou 
also over five cities." Luke xix: 15-19. 

Rulership on earth in the kingdom is a matter alto- 
gether of reward. 

All Christians go to heaven, but only those Chris- 
tians who are deserving of reward will be permitted to 
come from heaven and take part in the thousand years 
on earth. 



356 TIMES OF RESTITUTION. 

This truth brings into view the doctrine of rewards as 
related to the days of the kingdom. 

"Every man's work shall be made manifest; for the 
day (the day of Christ) shall declare it, because it shall 
be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's 
work of what sort it is. 

If any man's work abide which he hath built there- 
upon (on that foundation other than which no man can 
lay, Jesus Christ), he shall receive a reward. If any 
man's work shall be burned (any Christian man's, of 
course), he shall suffer loss; but he himself shall be 
saved; yet so ias by fire ( through the fire; just as Lot 
had all his work burned up in Sodom ; yet because he was 
in the covenant of God was brought out alive while the 
fire was falling)." I Corinthians iii: 10-15. 

"Let no man beguile you of your reward." Colos- 
sians ii: 18. 

"Look to yourselves, that we lose not those things 
which, we have wrought but that we receive a full re- 
ward." II John viii. 

"For the Son of Man shall come in the glory of his 
Father, with his angels, and then he shall reward every 
man according to his works." Matthew xvi: 2J. 

"And behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with 
me, to give every man according as his work shall be." 
Revelation xxii: 12. 

Four kinds of crowns are held out as reward. 

An incorruptible crown. 

"Now they do it (run in a race) to obtain a corrupti- 
ble crown; but we an incorruptible." I Corinthians ix: 

25. 

A crown of righteousness. 

"Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of right- 
eousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall 



TIMES OF RESTITUTION. 357 

give me at that day (day of Christ) : and not to me only, 
but unto all them also that love his appearing. " II 
Timothy iv: 8. 

A reward offered for a thing implies that the 
thing for which the reward is offered is not common ; 
or, is attended with trial and difficulty. This is the mean- 
ing here : reward for so apparently simple a thing <as lov- 
ing and necessarily longing for the appearing of 
Christ, is offered, because it is now, and will be more and 
more as this age goes on, a rare thing to find Christians 
desiring the Coming of the Lord; it will be more and 
more attended with trial for any Christian to take that 
attitude. 

A crown of life. 

"Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for 
when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which 
the Lord hath promised to them that love him." James 
i: 12. 

A crown of Glory. 

"And when the chief shepherd shall appear, ye shall 
receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away." I Peter 
v: 4. 

The Greek term used to describe this crown is amardn- 
tinon, Amaranthine. The Amaranthine crown is spe- 
cifically for those in the Church of Christ who have 
faithfully set forth the word of Christ during his absence. 
To this list of titular rewards may be added: 

The morning star. 

"He that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the 
end, to him will I give power over the nations : 

And he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the ves- 
sels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers: even as 
I received of my Father. 



358 TIMES OF RESTITUTION. 

And I will give him the morning star." Revelation 
ii: 25-28. 

The morning star comes before the day, and is seen 
only by the watchers ; consequently, it is the symbol of 
those who in the deep spiritual night of earth, between 
the midnight and the morn, wait and watch for the secret 
sudden descent of the Lord, as the Bridegroom, to his 
Church. 

As it is possible to gain a crown, so is it possible to 
lose a crown. 

"Behold, I come quickly; hold that fast which thou 
hast, that no man take thy crown." Revelation iii: 11. 

This is illustrated by Luke xix: 24-26. 

"And he said unto them that stood by, Take from him 
the pound, and give it to him that hath ten pounds." 

The function of the Church, corporately, is seen in 
Revelation xx: 6. 

"As priests of God they reign with him a thousand 
years." 

Their place is in the heavens; for the first time the 
doctrine of the "Intercession of the Saints" has its full 
meaning. 

The function of the Church, individually, is set forth 
in Revelation i : 6. 

"Hath made us kings and priests." 

Not only priests, but kings; and this kingliness to be 
exercised as a matter of individual reward in relation to, 
and upon the earth. 

The Church will reign throughout all ages. 

"Glory in the Church, throughout all ages" — pdsas 
tas geneas. Ephesians iii: 21. 

4. There will be universal peace during the thousand 
years. 



TIMES OF RESTITUTION. 359 

"Neither shall they learn war any more." Isaiah ii: 4. 

"They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy moun- 
tain: for the earth, shall be full of the knowledge of the 
Lord, as the waters cover the sea." Isaiah xi: 5-9. 
Isaiah lxv: 25. 

5. The earth will be made fruitful. 

"Then the earth shall yield her increase." Psalm 
lxvii : 4-6. 

"The desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose." 
Isaiah xxxv: I. Isaiah li: 3. 

"And I will multiply the fruit of the tree and the in- 
crease of the field." All this, of course, specially in 
Israel. Ezekiel xxxvi : 30. 

"There shall be showers of blessing." Ezekiel xxxiv: 
26. Ezekiel xlvii: 9-12. 

"The plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the 
treader of grapes him that soweth seed." Amos ix: 13. 

6. Human life will be prolonged. 

"For the child shall die an hundred years old." Isaiah 
lxv: 20. 

"And the inhabitant shall not say, I am sick." Isaiah 
xxxiii: 24. 

Life is here found to depend not on grace and over- 
watching providence, but on righteousness ; a man will 
live as long as he is righteous, and no longer; death will 
be judgment on the life. Satan being bound, and the 
regenerating Lord enthroned in power, there will be no 
excuse for sin. 

7. The heavens will be opened to the view of earth. 
They were open at the beginning. 

They were open to Enoch, Elijah, Jesus, Paul. 
They were wondrously opened to Jacob. Genesis 
xxxiii: 10-12. 



360 TIMES OF RESTITUTION. 

They will be opened by the Coming of the Son of God. 
Revelation xix: n. 

"And I saw heaven opened." 

"I will hear the heavens, and they shall hear the earth." 
Hosea ii: 21. That is to say, there will be communica- 
tion between them. 

"And he saith unto him (Jesus to Nathanael), Verily, 
verily, I say unto you, Hereafter ye shall see heaven 
open, and the angels of God ascending and descending 
upon the Son of Man." John i: 51. 

It is through these opened heavens that the city of 
God will be seen shining in all its celestial splendor. 
Revelation xxi: 9-27. 

Proof that the view of the city given in the preceding 
verses is during the thousand years : the fact that there 
are nations on the earth, nations that walk in the light of 
it. There are no nations during the Eternal state. 

This heavenly city so wonderfully described, is the 
place which our Lord went "to prepare." It is the abode 
of the Church corporately. 

These are the great characteristics of the Thousand 
years. 



THE PURPOSE OF GOD. 

Two-fold. 

1. To put down authority and power by a world-re- 
jected man. 

"When he shall have put down all rule and all author- 
ity and power." I Corinthians xv: 24. 

2. To test man in the flesh, in a kingdom ruled by a 
heavenly man, on principles of divine righteousness. 



TIMES OF RESTITUTION. 361 

THE ATTITUDE OF GOD. 

Looking upon the world as filled with the enemies of 
Christ. "For he must reign till he hath put 'all enemies' 
under his feet." I Corinthians xv: 25. Psalms ii: 4-8. 

"The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right 
hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool." 

"The Lord shall send the rod of thy strength out of 
Zion : rule thou in the midst of thine enemies." Psalm 
ex : 1, 2. 



THE ENDING. 

The end of the thousand years comes with the loosing 
of Satan. 

"And when the thousand years are expired, Satan 
shall be loosed out of his prison." Revelation xx: 7. 



AFTER THE THOUSAND YEARS. 

The Beginning. Revelation xx : 7, the loosing of 
Satan. 

The Motive. To make a final test of man in the flesh 
through the agency of Satan. 

The Order of events. 

This order is eleven-fold. 

1. The missionary tour of the Devil. 

"And (the Devil) shall go out to deceive the nations 
which are in the four quarters of the earth." Revela- 
tion xx : 8. 

2. The nations deceived. Revelation xx: 8. 

Why are they deceived? How is it possible for men 
to be deceived by the Devil, when for a thousand years 
the earth has been full of the glory of God, and the pres- 
ence of the Christ? 



362 TIMES OF RESTITUTION. 

The answer is, that all who dwell on the earth are not 
truly regenerated; they give only feigned submission to 
the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. They are held in 
subjection, not by love to the Lord, but by the fact that 
Satan, their ally, is a bound prisoner in the bottomless 
pit. Feigned faith is all that they possess. 

"The strangers (the Gentiles, or the sons of the Gen- 
tiles) shall submit themselves unto me (submit; on 'the 
margin it reads; lie, or, yield feigned obedience)." 
Psalm xviii: 44. Psalm lxvi : 3 (the margin the same). 
Psalm lxxxi: 15. 

3. The Great Apostasy. 

The coming up of the deceived nations, Gog and 
Magog. Revelation xx: 8, 9. 

4. The Great Fire Deluge. 

"And fire came down from God out of heaven, and 
devoured them." Revelation xx: 9. 

"Upon the wicked he shall rain snares (quick burning 
coals), fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest." 
Psalm xi : 6. 

5. The End of the Devil. 

"And the Devil that deceived them was cast into the 
lake of fire, and shall be tormented forever and ever." 
Revelation xx: 10. 

6. The Great White Throne. 

"And I iw a great white throne, and him thai sat 
on it." Revelation xx: 11. 

7. The Great Dissolution. 

"The earth and the heaven fled away." Revelation 
xx: 11. 

The word "fled" from which we get our English word 
"fugitive." 

The old creation can no longer abide in the presence 



TIMES OF RESTITUTIO*. 363 

of the throne sitter; he can no longer abide it, and it 
flees away, becomes a fugitive. It is dissolved by fire. 

''The heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and 
the elements shall melt with fervent heat ; the earth also, 
and the works that are therein, shall be burned up, * * * 
the heavens, being on fire, shall be dissolved, and the 
elements shall melt with fervent heat." II Peter iii : 5-7. 
10-12. 

Verse 7 shows that this dissolution is coincident with 
the White throne judgment. 

"Reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and 
perdition of ungodly men." 

The heavens will pass away with a great noise. 

The heavens, hoi ouranol, the atmospheric heavens. 

"Pass away." Pareleusontai. To disappear, vanish 
away. 

"With a great noise" hroizeedbn, a whizzing, rush- 
ing sound. 

"The elements shall melt with fervent heat." 

The elementary forces, the gases, will be in combus- 
tion. Here is an immense chemical transaction; the 
heavens will be a vast sheet of flame; the earth will be 
enveloped as in a robe of fire. The earth will be melted, 
turned into a liquid state. 

"The hills shall melt and flow down at his presence." 
Psalm xcvii: 5. 

"Behold, the Lord maketh the earth empty; and mak- 
eth it waste, and turneth it upside down, and scatte r eth 
abroad the inhabitants thereof." Isaiah xxiv: 1. 

Every scientific reason for this. 

Astronomy predicts such to be the end of the world. 

The world, however, is not to be completely de- 
stroyed. 



364 TIMES OF RESTITUTION. 

This is evident from the use of the word "perish" in 
II Peter iii: 5, 6. 

"By the word of God the heavens were of old, and 
the earth standing out of the water and in the water; 

Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed 
with water, perished."' 

The contour of the original earth was entirely changed 
but the earth as to its material construction was not ac- 
tually destroyed. 

The earth will be shaken as in a sieve by the tremen- 
dous cataclysm through which it will pass, but things 
that cannot be shaken will abide. 

"That those things which cannot be shaken may re- 
main." Hebrews xii : 2J. Haggai ii. 

It is simply melting the earth down in order that it 
may be moulded over again; it is getting rid of the old 
order for the new. 

God will know how in the midst of these terrors to 
take care of those who are his. 

Those who are righteous need have no fear of the 
burnings. 

"Who among us shall dwell with th.2 devouring fire?" 
Isaiah xxxiil: 14. 

"He that walketh righteously." Isaiah xxxiii : 15. 

He will provide shelter for his earthly people. 

"Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and 
shut thy doors about thee : hide thyself, as it were, for a 
little moment, until the indignation be overpast." Isaiah 
xxvi : 20. 

"For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as 
an ovEN ; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, 
shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn 
them up, saith the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave them 
neither root nor branch. 



TIMES OF RESTITUTION. 365 

And ye shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be 
as ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I 
shall do this, saith the Lord of hosts." Malachi iv: 1-3. 

8. The Universal Confession. 

"Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and 
given him a name which, is above every name: 

That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of 
things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under 
the earth; 

And that every tongue should confess that Jesus 
Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." Phil- 
ippians ii: 10, 11. 

That this is the moment for the confession is evident; 
it cannot be after the judgment, because at that moment 
Hades the under world is empty : hence, here and now, is 
the supreme moment; it is a confession, not unto salva- 
tion, but similar to that in James ii : 19. 

"Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest 
well: the devils (demons, disembodied souls in Hades) 
believe, and tremble. " 

A confession that comes too late. 

9. The Second Resurrection. 

"And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before 
God; and the books were opened: and another book was 
opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were 
judged out of those things which were written in the 
books, according to their works." Revelation xx: 12, 

13- 

Proof that this is the second resurrection : 

"The rest of the dead lived not again until the thou- 
sand years were finished. This is the first resurrection." 
Revelation xx: 5, 6. 

There is a first resurrection; it begins with the resur- 
rection of Christ, and closes with his Coming. 



366 TIMES OF RESTITUTION. 

"Every man in his own order; Christ the first fruits; 
afterwards they that are Christ's at his coming." I 
Corinthians xv: 23. 

As there is no resurrection during the thousand years ; 
;as the resurrection recorded in verses 12, 13, is the only 
one mentioned after the thousand years, it must be the 
second, as it is, the last. 

And this resurrection is called: 

a. The Resurrection of the Rkst of the; Dead. 
Revelation xx: 5. 

The word for "the rest" is loipoi; it comes from a verb 
which signifies, "to be left," "to be deserted," "to be left 
over, forsaken," "to be destitute." It means to be de- 
ficient. 

What a picture ! 

These are the left over from the First Resurrection. 

These are the "Deficients." "The Degenerates." 

Deficient of the life which is alone in Christ Jesus, 
these are as a consequence the degenerates of eternity. 

And, oh! horror! the "deserted," the "forsaken" 
through eternity. 

b. The Resurrection of Shame. Daniel xii: 2. 

c. Resurrection of the Unjust. 

"There shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the 
just and the unjust." Acts xxiv: 15. 

d. The Resurrection of Damnation." John v: 29. 
The word "damnation" is "judgment;" it is really 

"condemnation." Those who appear at that judgment 
have already been in the "prison" of Hades, and come 
forth only to receive final and public sentence. 
Those who will appear at the Judgment Resurrection: 
1. The unjust, the Christless dead. Acts xxiv: 15. 
The unjustified, those who have not been justified 
through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. 



TIMES OF RESTITUTION. 367 

2. The Apostate Angels. 

"For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but 
cast them down to hell (the word used here is tartar os, 
signifying lowest abyss, the lowest part of Hades,) and 
delivered them into chains of darkness (the word ren- 
dered "chains" reads "dens," "caves," "cells") to be 
RESERVED unto judgment. * * * The Lord know- 
eth how to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment 
to be punished." II Peter ii : 4-9. 

"And the angels which kept not their first estate (these 
are the sons of God who in the sixth chapter of Genesis 
came down and took the daughters of men for their 
wives) but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in 
everlasting chains, under darkness, unto the judgment 
of the great day." Jude. vi. 

The Church will be the associate judge with Christ 
in that hour. 

"The saints shall judge the world * * * we 
shall judge angels." I Corinthians vi: 2, 3. 

"To execute upon them the judgment written: this 
honor have all his saints." Psalm cxlix: 6-9. 

The judgment will be a judgment of Books. 

The Book of Creation. Romans i: 20. 

The Book of Conscience. Romans ii: 14-16. 

The Book of the Law. Romans ii: 12. 

The Book of the Gospel. Romans ii : 16. 

The Book of Works. Revelation xx: 12. 

The Book of Words and Speeches. Matthew xii : 37. 
Jude. xv. 

The Book of Thoughts. Luke ii: 35. 

The Book of Life. Revelation xx: 12. 

All Secrets will be revealed. 

"There is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; 
and hid, that shall not be known." Matthew x: 26. 



$68 TIMES OF RESTITUTION. 

"The Secrets of Men." Romans ii: 16. 

The deed for which the apostate angels will be judged. 

"The Sons of God saw the daughters of men that they 
were fair; and they took them wives of all which they 
chose. * * * The angels which kept not their first 
estate (the word "estate" is archeen, a province, a 
country), but left their own habitation." Jude. vi. 

"They which shall be accounted worthy to obtain 
* * * the resurrection from the dead (the First Res- 
urrection) NEITHER MARRY, NOR ARE GIVEN IN MAR- 
RIAGE * * * they are Equal to the angels." Luke 
xx : 35, 36. 

Equality with the angels here signifies immortality; 
these angels then were immortal; as immortals do not 
marry, marriage was the sin of the angels; they de- 
scended from the realm of the immortal to the mortal. 

In the light of this deed of the angels we have an ex- 
planation of Saint Paul's admonition to Christian 
women. 

"For this cause ought the women to have power (the 
word used for "power" signifies a covering — a veil,) on 
her head, because of the angels." I Corinthians xi : 10. 

There will be no probation at this Judgment. 

"Between us and you there is a great gulf fixed." 
Luke xvi : 26. 

Although the Book of Life is opened there is not one 
of all that throng whose name is written therein. 

The proof. All who are Christ's take part in the First 
Resurrection. 

During the Thousand years only the sinner and the 
accursed die. Ps. ci: 8. "I will early destroy all the 
wicked." 

The Book of Life is the Golden Register bearing the 



TIMES OF RESTITUTION. 369 

names of those who are in the bond of the covenants and 
who have life in Christ; the names of these, and these 
alone, are written therein. 

The angels will call the name of each one who shall 
stand at that solemn bar ; the Recording Angel will look 
at the golden page of the Book of Life, but will fail to 
find these names written there. 

In the following passages will be found mention of the 
Book of Life: 

Exodus xxxii: 32, Ps. lxix : 28, Isaiah iv : 3, Daniel 
xii: I. 

The final doom of all zvho take part in the Second 
Resurrection. 

"And whosoever was not found written in the Book 
of Life was cast into the lake of fire." Revelation 
xx : 15. 

10. The New Heavens and Earth. 

"And I saw a new heaven and a new earth." Revela- 
tion xxi : 1. 

The heavens made pure, and the old earth after its 
purifying fires made over again. 

n. The delivering up of the kingdom to the Father. 

"Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered 
up the kingdom to God, even the Father." I Corin- 
thians xv : 24. 

Having as the Second Man restored all things that 
the First man marred ; having undone all his evil work, 
our Lord Jesus Christ will hand this delivered and re- 
stored earth back to the Father. 



370 TIMES OF RESTITUTION. 

THINGS RESTORED. 

i. The Nation of Israel. 

To their own Land. 

To their King. 

Themselves made the Memorial Nation of Eternity. 

"For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I 
will make, shall remain before me, saith the Lord, so 
shall your seed and your name remain." Isaiah lxvi : 22. 

"Thus saith the Lord, if heaven above can be 
measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out 
beneath, I will also cast off the seed of Israel. 

"If these ordinances (of the heavens) depart from 
before me, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from 
being a nation before me forever." Jeremiah xxxi: 

37, 36. 

2. Man restored to the image and likeness of God. 
That is to say he will be the representative of God 

authoritatively and morally. 

But he will get far more in the Restoration than he 
lost by the Fall. 

He will be an Immortal, deathless Son of God ; the 
enthronement and manifestation of God in the flesh. 
God Incarnate. 

3. The Earth restored to God. 

Not as it is found at the end of the six-days creation, 
but as it was in that primeval creation recorded in the 
first verse of Genesis ; and before it fell into chaos. 

It will go back to that undescribed hour when "In the 
Beginning, God created the heaven and the earth." 

Thus God gets his world back again ; that world whose 
pristine beauty was first marred by Satan ; that world 
which after its first re-creation was again stolen from 
him by the great adversary. 



TIMES OF RESTITUTION. 371 

But he gets it back with Plus. 

Plus the Church of Christ. 

That is to say, a race far above what Adam would 
have been, if he never had fallen. 

A race far above Satan and his angels, to whom he 
first gave it. 

A race superior to the fairest angels of his realm ; for 
these we are told are to be the messengers and servants 
of the Church. Hebrews i : 14. 

A race of God's own perfect Sons, each son a perfect 
God-man. 



THE BOOK OF JEREMIAH. 



IH Book of 3eretniafc 



The proper title for this book is : "The Day of Jacob's 
Trouble." 

Characteristically, the book might be called "A 
Treatise on Verbal Inspiration." Out of fifty chapters, 
at least forty begin with a "thus saith the Lord," or its 
cognate terms. 

Subjects of the book: 

Israel's sins ; Threatened judgment and final captivity 
of Judah in Babylon ; Destruction of Jerusalem ; Resto- 
ration of? a part of all Israel ; The Day of Jacob's Trouble 
under Antichrist ; Restoration of the Ten Tribes ; Re- 
building Jerusalem to the Lord ; Millennial glories ; 
Christ in the land ; Closes with the captivity of Judah. 

Key words : 

Chapter xxx: 7. "Jacob's Trouble." 

Chapter xxx: 18. "The City shall be builded upon 
her own heap." 

Chapter i: 9. "Behold I have put my words in thy 
mouth." 

Chapter xv : 16. "Thy words were found, and I did 
eat them; and thy word was unto me the joy and re- 
joicing of mine heart." 

Historic Periods. The reigns of Josiah, Jehoiakim, 
and Zedekiah. 

Scriptures to read. II Kings. Chapters, 22, 23 and 
25. 



375 



376 JBRBMIAH. 

Contents of Chapters : 

Chapter i. Call and message of Jeremiah. 

Chapter 2. Arraignment of Israel. They forsake the 
Fountain of Living waters and seek broken cisterns that 
can hold no water. 

Chapter 3. The Ten Tribes are carried away because 
of idolatry. Judah repents not and is more sinful than 
the Ten. The Lord invites the Ten to come back. He 
promises to receive them in blessing. A view of the 
final restoration of both houses. Jerusalem seen to be 
the Throne of the Lord in the Last Days. 

Chapter 4. The coming anguish and desolation of 
Jerusalem. 

Chapter 5. Judah a rebellious and revolting heart. 

Chapter 6. Reprobate Silver. 

Chapter 7. The Temple of» God become a den of 
thieves. 

Chapter 8. The stork, the turtle, and the crane know 
their seasons as appointed of God, but Israel, the people 
of God, know not his judgments. 

Chapter 9. The sin of Judah finds judgment in the 
tears of Jeremiah. 

Chapter 10. A warning to the Ten Tribes wherever 
they may be. 

Chapter 11. Judgment and woe gathering for Judah. 

Chapter 12. Judah to be plucked out of the land. 

Chapter 13. The nation of Judah as unable to change 
its ways as the Ethiopian his skin, or the leopard his 
spots. 

Chapter 14. A testimony of sin. 

Chapter 15. God's word precious to a faithful witness 
in an hour of sin. 

Chapter 16. The Ten Tribes though lost to the view 



JBRBMIAH. 377 

of man, not lost to the eyes of God. He will find and 
bring them back again. 

Chapter 17. The cursed man: He who maketh flesh 
his arm : The blessed man : He who trusteth in the Lord. 

The character of the human heart. Deceitful above 
all things, and desperately wicked. Unfathomable by 
the science and wisdom of man it is, and can be, known 
only to God. And this heart, in the heart of Judah, cul- 
minated in a wickedness of which man himself has never 
yet realized the enormity, the murder of God's Son; and 
this wickedness God had seen and anticipated. And 
therefore it is, that here he raises the question, "Who 
can know it?" 

Chapter 18. Helpless as the clay in the hands of the 
potter, why should man, the vessel, rebel against God 
his Maker? 

Chapter 19. Like a potter's broken vessel, Jerusalem 
is to be. 

Chapter 20. Hatred of truth puts its witness in the 
stocks. 

The folly of the Devil, and the madness of man, to 
attempt to arrest the truth by such a barricade on the 
highway of God's plan and purpose. 

Chapter 21. Doomed to go to Babylon. 

Chapter 22. All the earth called to witness God's 
uttered word against Judah ; by this Judah is set before 
all the earth as the living and historic seal on the truth 
of the written word of God. 

Chapter 23. The Coming of Christ, Restoration of 
Israel, and the Millennial kingdom. 

Judah ordained to stay in Babylon seventy years. 

Chapter 26. The death of? the speaker plotted, as 
though the silence of human lips could silence the lips 
of God. 



378 JBRBMIAH. 

Chapter 27. Rulership in the earth, as under the Prov- 
idence and ordering of God, transferred from the Jew 
to the Gentile, in Nebuchadnezzar. 

Chapter 28. A false prophet puts a lie against the 
truth of God and is slain by him in the shame of his 
lie; for God reiterates his will that the rule of the earth 
shall be in the hands of the Gentiles. 

Chapter 29. After seventy years Judah shall return. 

Chapter 30. 

1. Judah and part of Israel to be brought back. 
Verses 2, 3. 

2. Day of Jacob's Trouble ; spoken of by our Lord in 
Matthew xxiv: 21. 

3. Antichrist arises and is overthrown by the coming 
of the Christ. Verse 8. 

4. Christ will be the blessed King. Verse 9. 

5. The City will be rebuilt. Verse 18. 

6. The people re-established. Verses 18-22. 

7. The glory of the promised kingdom to be brought 
in by judgments at the Coming of the King. Verses 
23-24. 

Chapter 31. Restoration. 

Chapter 32. The chapter of the Title Deeds. 

Jerusalem is besieged. The prophet is in prison. He 
buys land of his cousin and takes title deeds of the pur- 
chase. All this witnesses that in spite of coming cap- 
tivity, dispersion, and ages of wandering, the Lord holds 
the title to the land, and will bring his people back, and 
give it to them. Verses 6-44. 

It is in the light of this Jeremiah chapter that we are 
to read the fifth chapter of the book of Revelation ; sing- 
ing, because of all it means, with the inspired and heav- 
enly choristers, who fill that chapter with their triumph- 
ant praise. 



J BRUM I AH. 379 

In that fifth chapter, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Risen 
One in the courts of Glory, is seen to take out of the 
hands of the Father, a book sealed with seven seals 
within and without. The moment he takes this seal all 
the voices of the redeemed break forth in song, declaring 
that the Son of God shall take the kingdom and reign ; 
and that they who have been redeemed by his blood shall 
reign with him over the earth. The breaking of the 
seals which follows, is the series of judgments by which 
the Lord enters into the possession of the land, and the 
kingdom of his purchase. In Jeremiah therefore we 
have typically and prophetically the indication, that in 
spite of all the conditions in Israel, the Lord would yet 
set up the covenanted kingdom ; and that it would be re- 
stored and .set up on the basis of a purchase price paid 
by the king ; Revelation gives us in symbol the hour and 
the process by which the Lord will enter into the power 
and joy of that possession; as the scene in Revelation 
takes place after we get a picture of the Church raptured 
to heaven, then it is evident that the kingdom with all 
it means of restoration to Israel and glory to the Church, 
will not take place till after the Lord at his Parousia 
descends into the air for his church. Jeremiah xxii, and 
Revelation v explain each other ; and because they do so, 
though written pages apart, bear witness that both were 
written by the same spirit; both are inspired of God. 

Chapter 33. The Full Restoration chapter. 

Chapter 34. All Judah shall be bondsmen in Assyria 
because they refused to proclaim liberty to the bondsmen 
in their own land. 

Chapter 35. The Rechabite chapter. 

The Rechabites promised their father never to drink 
wine, or to build houses. 



380 JBREMIAH. 

They kept the word of their father, and by this became 
a living witness against Israel, who kept not the word 
of their God. Because of their faithfulness, God gives 
them a man to stand before him forever. 

In this incident we have a resplendent fore-picture 
of the Church. 

i. The Rechabite comes in after the Jew has been 
judicially set aside. Only after the Jew has been 
judged of God, and set aside because of his failure as 
to the Living Word, does the Church come into view. 

2. The Rechabite drinks no wine. 

Wine is a symbol of earthly joy. The church is not 
to find her joy in earthly sources. 

3. The Rechabite lives in a tent, he is a pilgrim and 
a stranger during all his life. Concerning the Church 
the Apostle says in Philippians iii: 20, 21, that the 
Christian is the citizen of a country which is in heaven; 
and the Apostle Peter declares that the Christian is a 
''pilgrim and a stranger" in the earth. 

4. The Rechabite was governed by the word of his 
father. 

The Christian must be governed by the word of God ; 
it is to be the rule of his faith and practice. 

5. A man was in the presence ofi God for them con- 
tinually. 

The Church has a man in the presence of God who 
"ever liveth to make intercession." 

Chapter 36. The Penknife chapter. 

The king in Israel does not like God's written word. 
He takes a penknife, cuts out the leaves that are dis- 
pleasing to him, and casts them into the fire. God com- 
manded that the book should be rewritten, and the judg- 
ments reaffirmed. 



JBRBMIAH. 381 

The age in which we live is a penknife chapter in 
the book of time. The record of this age is, that men 
occupying the position of authority in the church of 
Christ, with the penknife of Rationalism and Higher 
Criticism, cut out of the word of God all those passages 
which, by virtue of their conflict with human reason 
or human judgment, fail to please them, and cast them 
into the fire, kindled by the human intellect. But just 
as the book in the days of Jeremiah came forth from 
the fire kindled on the hearth of the king's palace, so 
the word of the living God in our day or in any day of 
assault, will arise from the fires of human judgment, 
and be reaffirmed to the heart and conscience of men. 
The king who so easily served himself of the penknife 
in those far-away days, and imagined that he had com- 
pletely nullified that which was written, has long ago 
passed out of the realm of time, and is only remembered 
as the weakling who endeavored to measure his little 
concept against the thought of God. He is gone, but 
the book remains, and over the fulfillment of the judg- 
ments of God against Israel as foretold by Jeremiah, 
we read the verified assurance that this word is settled 
in the heavens forever. 

Chapter 37. Cast into prison the prophet comes fortli 
to speak again the same message; whatever may be the 
variable experience of the ambassador of God, the word 
remains unchanged ; and he who would speak it at all, 
is forced to speak it in its unchangeableness. 

Chapter 39. Jerusalem taken. 

Chapter 40. Jeremiah spared and allowed of God 
to remain in the land with a few. 

Chapter 41. The remaining few add rebellion to re- 
bellion. 



382 JBRBMIAH. 

Chapter 42. God will forgive, and make the few the 
beginning of the Restoration, if they will abide in the 
land, and not go down into Egypt. Otherwise he will 
punish. 

Chapter 43. The "Sinful People" refuse the word 
of the Lord, and deliberately go down into Egypt. 

Chapters 44 and 45. Threatened judgments on those 
who go down into Egypt. 

Chapters 46-49. Judgments of God against Gentile 
nations whom he has used in the correction of his 
people. Verses 27-28. 

Chapters 50 and 51. The kingdom of Antichrist. 
Babylon his capital. His capital destroyed to make way 
for the revelation of? the kingdom from Heaven. 

The words of Jeremiah end here with the overthrow 
of Babylon and the coming Exaltation of Jerusalem ; and 
it is to be noticed that whenever the one is down, the 
other is always up. 

Chapter 52. Appendix. Details of the plucking out 
and Captivity of Judah. 

Thus this book of Jeremiah is the witness of Israel's 
sin, God's forbearance, his warnings, his grace, the terri- 
bleness of his judgments, and the accuracy of his word. 

Israel is shown to be without excuse; every footstep 
witnesses to the grace and truth of God. 

In reading Jeremiah we learn that the wages of sin is 
death. God keepeth faith with his word for evil as well 
as good ; for wrath as well as grace. And as Israel 
stands convicted on the page of history, so will every 
unbelieving soul stand convicted at the bar of God; and 
of each it will be asked as the prophet asked of Judah, 
"What wilt thou say when he shall punish thee?" 

Thus in sum, the book shows Israel indicted, con- 
victed, condemned, and God justified in all his ways. 



JEREMIAH. 383 

Concerning Jeremiah it may be said: His ministry 
began in, and ran through a period of absolute apos- 
tasy. The Ten Tribes had been carried away because 
of their idolatry; a few families remained. These united 
with Judah to plunge deeper into sin, into idolatry, and 
all shameful social practices. 

Under Josiah there was a measure of reform, but 
under Jehoiakim and Zedekiah there was complete de- 
parture from God, and iniquity cried aloud for judg- 
ment. 

On such a background the testimony of Jeremiah 
could be nothing less than an arraignment; no matter 
how promiseful might be at times his message, the bur- 
den of it must be that of denunciation and judgment. 

So intense was his testimony in this direction, that 
his very name has passed into a sort of by-word to ex- 
press denunciation and bitter lamentation ; when we wish 
to indicate a railing, or utterance that is more than usu- 
ally intense in pessimism and bitterness, we use the word, 
jeremiad. 

Such a testimony could produce but one result upon 
a people who had so completely departed from the living 
God. It angered them, brought out in them a feeling 
of hatred for the prophet who dared to speak God's truth, 
and expose them. 

They did what all guilty people do; they turned upon 
him, and denounced him as a scold, a discord, and a de- 
famer; they endeavored to minimize his value, defamed 
him at every turn, sought to involve his speech against 
himself, find in him occasion to prove the dishonesty of 
his life, and finally resorted to violence against him. 

Such a response to testimony carried with it two dis- 
tinct tests for Jeremiah: it would test him not only in 



384 JBRBMIAH. 

faithfulness to the word, but to the value of the word for 
himself. It would also test the exact ratio of interest 
he had in the people ; how far their sins and their threat- 
ened future affected him. 

He responded to both tests. Not only did he reaffirm 
under every trial the ministry committed to him, but 
he made manifest that he rejoiced in the word of God as 
one that findeth great spoil. He said: "Thy words were 
found, and I did eat them; and thy word was unto me 
the joy and rejoicing of my heart." 

He met the test in regard to the people; not only did 
he measure their defaming by the distance in which they 
stood from God, and therefore, their blindness, spiritual 
arrogance and helplessness, but he entered into and be- 
came a very part of their condition ; so that he felt their 
very sins and wickedness, and shivered in anticipation 
of their coming woes. So deeply did he enter in, that 
tears were his meat and his drink night and day. So 
deep, that he stood forth in the midst of his people a 
veritable man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. 

He had courage. 

No man could have stood alone as he stood with every 
finger pointed at him, without friends, the object of 
contempt and scorn, and his life hanging in the balance of 
some careless caprice, unless he had been endowed with 
courage. But his courage found its source in the un- 
shaken faith that he was speaking the very truth, the 
actual words of God. 

Such facts carry with them their own lessons; they 
teach us clearly enough the necessity for, and the reward 
of unfailing conviction in, the message of God. No 
more sublime evidence of that faith which acts against 
the evidence of sight has ever been given, than in the 



JEREMIAH. 385 

real estate transaction between Jeremiah and his cousin. 
Shut up in prison, the city besieged, knowing by the 
warning of God that the enemy would be victorious, his 
people led away captive for seventy years, and the land 
to lie desolate and unoccupied, he nevertheless buys 
the field in Anathoth, subscribes and takes evidences of 
purchase. He does this easily in the face of all the re- 
monstrances of common sense, because he believes the 
promise of God that his people shall be restored. It is 
a direct walking in the faith of coming to-morrows. 

The subsequent history of the nation confirmed the 
word of God, and justified the faith of his servant. The 
history of the people in all the ages since, has been as 
much a justification of the prophet, as of the Lord he 
served. Time has shown the deeper and longer range 
of his prophetic vision. The fires which, burned his 
writings have gone out, but the word he wrote is re- 
written on every page of Judah's history. The events 
that shall set up the platform on which the Day of 
Jacob's Trouble is yet to be displayed in all its lurid mag- 
nificence, the overthrow of iniquity, the replacing of all 
Israel, the exaltation of Jerusalem, and the song of a re- 
united and regenerated people in Immanuel's land, and in 
Immanuel's presence, will yet proclaim, not only that the 
word spoken by Jeremiah was the word of God, but that 
this man, the man who wished that his head were waters, 
and his eyes a fountain of tears ; this man of the sor- 
rowful countenance, mocked of men, denied of kings, 
plunged in the mire of dungeons, and the deeper mire of 
human contumely and scorn ; that this man was indeed 
a man of God, God's own prophet, telling him out in the 
ears of men for truth, both in judgment and in grace ; 
and in that hour when the King cometh to his own again, 



386 JERBMIAH. 

holding in his hands the Title Deeds of that Holy land, 
sealed with his blood as its purchase price, not among the 
least of those to whom he shall speak in gentleness, and 
to whom his hand shall give special and shining reward, 
will be this man, who shrank at first in fear and trembling 
from the exalted call, but rose up to the height of his im- 
mense privilege, the moment he realized he was called to 
speak and proclaim the very words that God himself 
had breathed ; not the least among them all, shall be this 
man, the prophet Jeremiah. 

As a deeply suggestive lesson of God's foreknowledge 
and definite ways, let it be remembered that before Jere- 
miah was conceived, or formed in time, God had foreseen 
and ordained him to this very hour and work. 

Thus from beginning to end, Jeremiah was completely 
removed from the realm of accident, both in constitution 
and career, and stands forth as the concrete manifesta- 
tion of the will, the wisdom, and the purpose of God. 
And it suggests) to us how, if we will own God in this 
high, relationship to ourselves; if we will see that our 
life from beginning to end has been as much planned as 
the whole creation of God ; and that from the beginning, 
as in all the way, we have been, and are, as much in the 
thought of God as was Jeremiah, then we may walk con- 
tinually in an atmosphere of Divine fellowship, Divine 
assurance, and unclouded peace, knowing that as we are 
in the changeless purpose of our God, so all things shall 
work together to our good, for our glory, and for his. 



THE CHURCH. 



Cbe €burcb. 



The word Church is the Greek word Bcclesia, "The 
called out." 

Doctrinally, the Church is a body of persons called out 
by the power of God, to faith in a Crucified and Risen 
Christ, having had wrought in them by the Spirit and 
the Word, the nature of the Risen Christ, indwelt by the 
Spirit, made members one of another, and linked by that 
Spirit to the Risen Man in the Heavens. 

This is the Church. 

Note: 

1. Historically, the Church had no existence before 
the resurrection of Christ. 

"Which in other ages was not made known unto the 
sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles 
and prophets by the Spirit." Ephesians iii: 1-5, 9-10. 

The Patriarchs, such as Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and 
Joseph, were not in the Church; they were quickened by 
the Spirit, but not united to a Risen Man in the Heavens ; 
and this, from the simple fact, that at that time, such a 
person as a Risen Man was not yet manifested. 

2. The Church had no existence when Christ was on 
the earth. The Church was yet future. 

"I will build my church." Matthew xvi : 18. 

The mission of Christ as the minister of the Circum- 
cision was exclusively to the lost sheep of the house 
of Israe 1 

"Now I say that Jesus Christ was a minister of the 
Circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the prom- 
ises made unto the fathers." Romans xv: 8. 

389 



390 THE CHURCH. 

"But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the 
lost sheep of the house of Israel." Matthew xv: 24. 

"These twelve Jesus sent forth, and commanded them, 
saying, go not into the way of the Gentiles. * * * But 
go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." Mat- 
thew x: 5, 6. 

"And set up over his head, his accusation written, 
This is Jesus the King op the Jews." Matthew 
xxvii : 37. 

3. The resurrection of Christ was the beginning of the 
Church. 

On the day that Christ arose from the dead he 
breathed on his disciples, and by that act quickened them 
into vital union with himself as the Risen One, thus unit- 
ing them to one another in himself, and forming the liv- 
ing, mystic, and spiritual body, the Church; this hour 
zvas the birth hour of the Church. 

"He breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive 
ye the Holy Ghost." John xx: 22, 23. 

On the day of Pentecost the Spirit was made mani- 
fest in the earth, as the witness of the risen Christ; and 
then, and there, the Lord baptized the disciples, in the 
Spirit, into the body in which, and through which, he was 
henceforth to manifest himself on the earth. On that 
day the Spirit deposited in this spiritual body all the 
gifts and powers required for service in the name of an 
ascended Lord. 

"For by (in) one Spirit are we all baptized into one 
body." I Corinthians xii: 13. 

"There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. 
But all these worketh that one, and the self-same spirit, 
dividing to every man severally as he will." I Corin- 
thians xii: 4-1 1. 



THE CHURCH. 391 

In Acts xi, you have the Church passing out of the 
confines of Judaism. 

In Acts xiii: 42-44, you find the Church broadening 
to receive the Gentiles. 

In Acts xv : 14-17, you have the purpose of God in 
this age to take out from among the Gentiles a people 
for his name. 

"Simeon hath declared how God at the first did visit 
the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for his name." 
Acts xv : 14. 

God's name in this age is THE Christ; the name of 
his people therefore must be Christians. This age, con- 
sequently, is the Christian age, the age of the Calling 
Out, the Church age. 

4. The Church, doctrinally, was alone fully revealed 
to Paul. 

"For this cause I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ 
for you Gentiles, 

If ye have heard of the Dispensation op the Grace 
op God which is given to me to you-ward. 

How that by Revelation he made known unto me the 
Mystery (as I wrote afore in few words), 

Whereby, when ye read, ye may understand my knowl- 
edge in the Mystery op Christ: 

Which in other ages was not made known. * * * 
Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is 
this grace given, that I should make known among the 
Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ." Ephesians 
iii: 1-8. 

The Church is a mystery hidden from the beginning 
of the world in God, and known only to God. 

"The Mystery which from the beginning of the world 
hath been hid in God, who created all things by 
Jesus Christ." Ephesians iii; 9. 



392 THE CHURCH. 

5. The Church is the New Man. 

"For to make in himself One New Man." Ephesians 
ii: 15. 

A new, immortal, divine race of men; the answer to 
God's proposition in Genesis i: 26. "Let us make man 
in our image." 

In Genesis we find that Adam and Eve were called by 
a common name: "He called their name Adam." Gen- 
esis v: 2. 

Adam and Eve, typically, set forth Christ and his 
Church; therefore we find that Christ and his Church 
have a common name : 

"For as the body is one, and hath many members, and 
all the members of that one body, being many, are one 
body; so also is Christ." I Corinthians xii: 12. 

The word Christ is preceded by the article, "The 
Christ." And thus the name Christ is given to the 
Church, as the body of him who is called, also, the Christ. 

6. The Church is the Body of Christ. 

"The Church which is his body." Ephesians i : 22, 23. 

"For his body's sake, which is the Church." Colos- 
sians i : 24. 

"Now ye are the body of Christ." I Corinthians 12: 
20. 

"So we, being many, are one body in Christ." 
Romans 12: 5. 

7. The Church is prospectively the Bride of Christ. 
"For this cause shall a man leave his father and 

mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two 
shall be one flesh. 

This is a great mystery : but I speak concerning Christ 
and the Church." Ephesians v: 31, 32. 

Christ "the man" left his father in Heaven, and Mary 
his mother on earth; cutting off all ties he was joined 



THE CHURCH. 393 

for death and life, unto the Church, as her husband ; she 
is his affianced, and the marriage must necessarily be in 
the future. 

"Let us be glad and rejoice: for the marriage of the 
Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready." 
Revelation xix : 7. 

"Come hither and I will show thee the bride, the 
Lamb's wife." Revelation xxi : 9. 

8. Ministry in the Church is a gift from the ascended 
Lord to his Body on the earth. 

Ephesians iv : 7-12. 

"And God hath set some in the church ; first, apostles ; 
secondarily, prophets ; thirdly, teachers ; after that, 
miracles; then gifts of healings, helps, governments, 
diversities of tongues." I Corinthians xii : 28. 

There is a vast difference between Ministry and Priest- 
hood. 

The priest reveals man to God ; the minister reveals 
God to man. 

Priesthood on earth is a witness that man is at a 
certain distance from God ; ministry is a witness that 
God has entered into communion with man : that he is 
ready to reveal his mind, his thought, his intimate 
feelings. 

In the Church of Christ there is no separate class of 
priests ; all are spiritual priests. 

"Ye also, as lively stones, are built up, a spiritual 
house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, 
acceptable to God by Jesus Christ." I Peter ii : 5. 

The attempt to set up a class of priests in the church 
who shall have rule and authority over their brethren, 
is repudiated and rebuked by the significant passage in 
Hebrews viii : 4. "For if he were on earth, HE should 



394 THE CHURCH. 

not be a priest, seeing that there are priests that offer 
gifts according to the law." 
Note here : 

1. If Christ were on earth he would not be a priest. 

2. If he were on earth he would recognize priesthood 
alone in Israel, in the tribe of Levi, in the family of 
Aaron. 

3. Israel is not the Church ; on the contrary, some- 
thing wholly different. 

4. As priesthood on earth belongs exclusively to the 
people of Israel, then there is no priesthood on earth in 
the church, except that spiritual priesthood which be- 
longs to all believers. 

5. As Christ himself was not, and if he were on the 
earth to-day would not be a priest, then it becomes 
not only absurd but sinful, for any class of men in the 
Church, to exalt themselves into an office that the head 
of the church not only never occupied, but which by the 
express revelation of the spirit, he declares he could not 
occupy if he were with his church. 

6. As Christ is priest in Heaven alone, and alone for 
those who are represented as seated in Heavenly places 
in Him, then the moment the Church accepts priesthood 
on earth, she not only sets aside and loses the Priest- 
hood of Christ, but places herself on Jewish ground, 
under law, and outside of Grace; in short, priesthood in 
the Church, apart from that common to all Believers, is 
as much a senseless blunder as a spiritual crime. The 
Scriptures emphatically declare that there is no hier- 
archal class of men in the Church. 

The common distinction between Clergy and Laity, 
growing out of this hierarchal idea, has no warrant in 
the word of God; on the contrary, the whole Church is 
called the clergy of God. 



THE CHURCH. 395 

"Neither asi being lords over God's heritage, but being 
ensamples to the flock." I Peter v : 3. 

The word rendered heritage is kleros ; from which we 
get our word, Clergy. It is spiritual arrogance for any 
member of the Church of Christ to call himself a cx£rgy- 
man in distinction to, and as indicating an official su- 
periority over, the rest of the Church. 

Elders and Bishops are not mentioned among the gifts 
to the Church. 

These were appointed by the Churches and approved 
or appointed by the Apostles. 

"And when they had ordained them Elders in every 
Church." Acts xiv : 23. 

Elders and Bishops are identical. 

"For this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest 
set in order the things that are wanting, and ordain 
Elders in every city, as I had appointed thee : 

For a Bishop must be blameless, &c." Titus i : 5, 7. 

The Elders which are among you I exhort, who am 
also an Elder, and a witness of the sufferings! of Christ, 
and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed : 

Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking 
oversight." I Peter v: 1, 2. 

By these passages we learn that an Elder is an officer 
having oversight of the flock; one who has oversight is 
an ovERSKER, an overseer, in the Greek, is a Bishop ; a 
Bishop and an Elder then, are one and the same. 

The word Elder signifies the character of the person 
bearing office : according to Apostolic precedent he must 
be an elderly man. The word Bishop sets forth the 
character of the office which the Elder bears ; it is over- 
sight, overseeing the flock. 

Bishop and Elder do not exist at all to-day. They do 



396 THE CHURCH. 

not exist because there are no longer Apostles or Apos- 
tolic delegates to approve their election by the Church. 

The Pastor is a Gift to the Church. 

In the true sense, a Pastor cannot be ordained by any 
set of men, or called, or elected by any assembly ; he is 
a Pastor by divine ordination, altogether superior to any 
mere human planning ; and any Church which has a Pas- 
tor, has him by the Providence and "Call of God," ex- 
clusively. 

A Pastor signifies a shepherd. 

"And I will give you pastors according to mine heart, 
which shall feed you with knowledge and understand- 
ing." Jeremiah iii: 15. 

His office is to feed, not with the bread and meat that 
sustain the flesh, but with the knowledge and under- 
standing, that come alone through the ministration of the 
Word. 

"He saith unto him, Feed my lambs. 

He saith unto him, Feed my sheep." John xxi: 15, 
16. 

An Evangelist is one who publishes the Gospel, who 
points to the open door of God's grace, and invites the 
hungry to enter in that they may be fed. 

A Teacher is one who sets forth the doctrine and the 
related truths of the Word, building up, and setting in 
order the Christian life. 

The Pastor is one who divides the truth to the flock, or 
assembly, over whom God hath appointed him. 

There may be, in the providence of God, more than 
one pastor sent to a Church. 

Deacons are officers appointed by the Church. 

They are never to be ordained. 

A Deacon signifies a servant. 



THE CHURCH. 397 

Let it be kept well in mind that Office in the Church 
is not a gift; office is a local matter concerning such and 
such an assembly. 

9. The Church is to assemble for worship, and that 
worship, is to be in the Breaking of Bread. 

"And upon the first day of the week, When the 

DISCIPLES CAME TOGETHER TO BREAK BREAD." Acts 

xx : 7. 

The Church and the world are not to be mixed to- 
gether in public assembly. 

10. The Church meets officially on the first day of the 
week. 

"And upon the first day of the week when the 

DISCIPLES CAME TOGETHER." Acts XX : 7. 

11. The Church is a building. 

"Ye are God's building." I Corinthians iii: 9. 

A building in process of construction. 

"In whom all the building, fitly framed together; 
groweth tint a holy temple in the Lord: 

In whom ye also are builded (Greek, being bailded) 
together for an habitation of God through the Spirit." 
Ephesians ii: 21, 22. 

12. The Church, considered in assembly relations, is 
presented to Christ as a Virgin. 

"For I have espoused you to one husband, that I may 
present you as a chaste virgin to Christ." II Corin- 
thians xi: 2. 

The characteristics of a Betrothed Virgin are: Chas- 
tity, separateness, and faithfulness to the one to whom 
betrothed. 

13. Jesus is now the absent Bridegroom, preparing a 
place for the reception of the Bride. 

"I go to prepare a place for you." John xiv: 2. 



398 THE CHURCH. 

14. He will come again for the Church. 

"And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come 
again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, 
there ye may be also." John xiv: 3. 

"Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto 
ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to 
meet the Bridegroom. * * * The Bridegroom came; 
and they that were ready went in with him to the mar- 
riage." Matthew xxv : 1-10. 

15. He will present her to himself. 

"Christ also loved the Church, and gave himself for i^ ; 

That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the wash- 
ing of water by the word, 

That he might present it to himself a glorious Church, 
not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that 
it should be holy and without blemish." Ephesians v: 
25-27. 

16. He will marry the Church as his wife; marriage 
signifies union; this marriage union is set forth in the 
declaration of Saint Paul in Ephesians v: 30: "For we 
are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones." 

This union will be fully manifested in resurrection. 

"And God hath both raised up the Lord, and will also 
raise up us by his own power. 

Know ye not that your bodies are the members of 
Christ? * * * He that is joined unto the Lord is 
one spirit." I Corinthians vi : 14-17. 

"For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with 
a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the 
trump of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first; 

Then we which are alive and remain, shall be caught 
up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord 
in the air." Thessalonians iv: 16, 17. 



THE CHURCH. 399 

17. The Church will be taken away before the Tribu- 
lation. 

''I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, 
which shall come upon all the world, to try them that 
dwell upon the earth." Revelation iii : 10. 

There are many evidences that the Church will not 
go through the Tribulation. 

The Tribulation is distinctively Jewish. 

"Alas ! for that day is great, so that none is like it : 
it is even the Time op Jacob's trouble." Jeremiah 
xxx : 7. 

The location of this trouble is pre-eminently in Judea. 

"Then let them which be in JudEa flee into the moun- 
tains." Matthew xxiv: 16. 

The legitimate division of the book of Revelation 
places the Tribulation after the "door in Heaven is 
opened, and John, as the type op the True church, 
is caught up." 

After this (a'fter the repudiation of the professing 
Church in Laodicea) I looked and behold, a door was 
opened in heaven; and the first voice which I heard was 
as it were of a trumpet talking with me; which said, 
"Come up hither * * * and immediately I was in 
the Spirit." Revelation iv: 1, 2. 

The twenty-four elders seen in the fourth and fifth 
chapters are the Church; The church is seen enthroned 
in the heavens with Christ in the fourth chapter; in the 
fifth she is heard breaking forth into songs of exultant 
praise concerning the kingdom yet to be established on 
the earth. Then you get the sorrow and anguish of the 
sixth chapter, the turmoil and tribulation on the earth; 
after this you have the seventh chapter; not a word is 
said there which by any possibility can be construed in 



400 THE CHURCH. 

relation to the Church ; on the contrary, all the nomen- 
clature denies the presence of the Church. The seventh 
chapter gives the picture of a sealed number among the 
Jews ; the eighth chapter records a great multitude of 
Gentiles coming up out of the tribulation; all the time 
this is going on the Church, symbolized by the Twenty- 
four Elders in the fourth and fifth chapters, is seen in 
the heavens with Christ, above the storm, the torment, 
the darkness, and the tribulation going on below. 

The very phraseology of Revelation iii : 10, ought to 
settle the matter; not only is the direct promise given 
by the Lord to the Church that he will keep her out of the 
hour of tribulation, but the characteristic which he gives 
to those who are to pass through it, as those "that dwell 
on THE earth," ought to be all sufficient to deliver any 
expositor from the ruinous blunder of putting the Church 
through such an uncalled-for trial. The Church of 
Christ, considered from God's point of view, does not 
"dwell on the earth." 

As to the earth, the Church is a stranger and a pil- 
grim ; "strangers and pilgrims." I Peter ii : 2. According 
to Saint Paul in Philippians iii: 20, 21, she is a "citizen 
of that country which is in Heaven; and in Ephesians 
we are told, in unmistakable language, that as a Church 
we "sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus." 
Ephesians ii : 6. 

The Tribulation has to do with people on the earth, 
and whose habitation is to be on the earth. The Church 
is not earthly in any aspect. According to the mind of 
God, as Christians, we have been taken out of the world 
in the resurrection and ascension of our Lord, we have 
then been sent back into the earth in the name of the 
rejected and absent king, as his ambassadors, to repre- 



THE CHURCH. 401 

sent him, ,to walk through the world a,s those who, being 
away from home and on their way home, are waiting 
the sound of the voice which John heard, the voice of a 
trumpet talking with them, and calling them up into 
heaven through the "opened door." To talk of the trial 
and sifting of a heavenly people by the measures or- 
dained for an earthly people, is to destroy all laws of 
analogy, break in pieces type and symbol, and bring the 
Church down from the heights of the infinite glory, that 
she may camp between the Red Sea and Jordan. 

It is confusion worse confounded. 

But the Scriptures are full of illustrations and declara- 
tions which leave no room for mistakes. 

Take the case of Enoch, a fair and beautiful type of 
the Church; he is caught away from the earth just 
before the Flood. 

Lot, who is a type of the Church, of that side of the 
Church which has worldly tendencies, of those Chris- 
tians who must be "burned out" bef'ore they will come 
out, is snatched from Sodom, before the fires fall on the 
doomed city. 

And God takes pains to declare that he can do noth- 
ing till he comes out. 

Joseph is a type of our Lord Jesus Christ. Joseph 
gets a Gentile Bride, and puts her on the throne, before 
the "trouble" overtakes Jacob, and his sons, in the famine 
hour. 

The more the matter is studied in the light of the 
position which the Church holds to the world, and to an 
absent Christ, the more incongruous becomes the idea 
of a tribulation for the Church. 

18. The Church will be taken out of the world 
secretly. 



402 THE CHURCH. 

"For the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the 
night." I Thessalonians v : 2. 

There are several significant things here. 

The beginning of the day of the Lord, is in the night. 

It begins with the symbolized activity of a thief; the 
object of a thief's coming is to steal the treasure. The 
antitypical treasure is the Church; the day of the Lord 
will begin in th£ night, the spiritual night of the 
world, with an act like that of a thief, that act will be 
the stealing away of the Church. 

A thief not only comes in the darkness of the night, 
he comes secretly, unwarningly; and again and again 
we are told by the Son of God himself, that when he 
comes for his church, it will be at an hour when men are 
not thinking. 

Now the action of a thief in taking a precious thing 
from its possessor, is to "snatch" it away. This is the 
very expression used by the Apostle when he declares 
in the previous chapter- of the Epistle, the fourth, that 
the Church will be "caught away" to "meet" the Lord 
in the air. 

19. The Church will come back from Heaven with 
Christ in Glory. 

"When Christ, our life, shall appear, then shall ye also 
appear with him in glory." Colossians iii: 4. 

To appear from Heaven in glory, the Church must 
have first been caught up into Heaven, into glory. 

20. The Church will be associated with Christ in the 
rule of the age to come. 

"For unto the angels hath he not (he hath not) put 
in subjection the world to come." Hebrews ii: 5- 

"And again when he bringeth in the first begotten into 
the world (when he bringeth the first begotten again 



THE CHURCH. 403 

into the world) he saith, And let all the angels of Godi 
worship him." Hebrews i : 6. 

The world to come, that is, the age to come, will not 
be under the rule of angels, but under the rule of the 
Risen Man. 

With him, in that rule, will be the "many sons of 
Glory." "For it became him, for whom are all things, 
and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto 
glory, to make the Captain of their salvation perfect 
through uffering." Hebrews ii: 10. 

"And we shall reign on (over) the Earth." Rev- 
elation v: 10. 

"And shall reign with him a thousand years." Reve- 
lation xx : 6. 

21. The Church will sit with Christ in the Judgment. 
"Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the 

world? * * * Know ye not that we shall judge 
angels?" I Corinthians vi: 2, 3. 

22. The Church will come down, in the Eternal state, 
into the new earth, to dwell in, and be the Tabernacle of 
God; so that the whole scheme of God in Christ will at 
last be revealed; and the manifestation as described in 
the Gospel according to Saint John, will be matched and 
completed by the declaration of Saint John in the Reve- 
lation. 

In John i : 14, you read : "The word was made flesh 
and dwelt among us." 

The Greek is ekenosen, "tabernacled." 

Now read Revelation xxi : 3 : "The Tabernacle of 
God is with men, and he will dwell with them." 

The Tabernacle of God in the Gospel according to 
Saint John, is the One Man, the Son ; the Tabernacle in 
the Revelation, is the countless men, the "many sons of 
glory." 



404 THE CHURCH. 

And it is said, God will dwell or tabernacle with men ; 
that is to say, God will be made manifest, not only in the 
person of the Christ, but in the Church. 

Here then is the wondrous destiny of the Church, to 
be the Pavilion of splendor, the glorious body of perfect 
beings, through whom Godhead shall shine in a glory, on 
glory telling. 

From the above exposition certain deductions follow: 

1. The Church is not earthly, but Heavenly. 

"And hath raised us up together, and made us sit to- 
gether in heavenly places." Ephesians ii : 6. 

"If ye then be risen with Christ (since ye are risen)." 
Colossians hi: I. 

2. Times and seasons are not for the Church. 

"And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the 
mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath 
been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ : 

To the intent that now unto the principalities and 
powers in heavenly places might be known by the 
church, the manifold wisdom of God." Ephesians iii : 
9, io. 

"But of the times and seasons, brethren, ye have no 
need that I write unto you." I Thessalonians v: I. 

"And he said unto them, it is not for you to know the 
times or the seasons." Acts i: 7. 

3. The Church is not the kingdom but the mystery in 
the kingdom. 

"The Mystery of (the) Christ." Ephesians iii: 4. 

The nomenclature of the Church shows that it is not 
the kingdom idea. 

Pastors, Deacons, Elders, are not the officers of a 
kingdom ; and Christians as Kings and Priests, are not 
to enter on that function till Christ the King comes, and 



THE CHURCH. 405 

sets up the kingdom. The Church is in the kingdom, as 
the Royal family and the court are in the kingdom, but 
the hour of the reign is yet distant; the Apostle speaks 
a settling word upon this attempt to transmit the Church 
idea into the kingdom idea. 

"Now ye are full, now ye are rich, ye have reigned as 
kings without us : I would to God ye did reign, that we 
also might reign with you." I Corinthians iv : 8. 

4. The Church, like the Bride, is to be waiting for an 
absent and returning Bridegroom. 

"Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto 
ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to 
meet the Bridegroom." Matthew xxv: 1. 

"And to Wait for His Son from Heaven." I 
Thessalonians i: 10. 

5. Corporately, the glory of the Church is the highest 
glory. 

That is to say: corporately, the glory of the weakest 
Christian in the Church is higher than the glory of the 
greatest of God's servants outside the Church. For 
example, the man who belonged to Caesar's tenth legion 
had a higher glory than the soldier who belonged to the 
fourth or fifth. His glory came to him because of the 
legionary glory. Some individual soldier in the fourth 
legion might have been personally more glorious than 
any individual in the tenth legion, but because he was 
not attached to that famous legion, he was not so glori- 
ous in his standing in Rome. 

There is no question that Abraham in his personal 
glory is at the very altitude, seeing that he is the Father 
of the faith-filled, and because of his faith, justified be- 
fore God, and called his friend, the friend to whom God 
unfolded his plan, and from whom he would not hide that 



406 THB CHURCH. 

thing he was about to do; but it is not a matter for dis- 
pute that the glory of the Christian, even the weakest, 
is beyond the glory of Abraham; not because of what 
he is in himself, but because he is a member of the 
Church, the Body of Christ, that Body, that Church, 
which has the highest of all glories. 






SOME STUDIES IN THE BOOK OF 

RUTH. 



Some Studies in the Book of Ruth. 



STUDY No. i. 

I. There was a famine in the land. Ruth, i: I. See 
Judges xxi: 25. 

The prophet Amos speaks of a famine which is neither 
a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing 
the words of the Lord. Amos viii: 11. Such a 
famine seems to be in Christian lands to-day. When 
ministers of the gospel turn their pulpits into platforms 
for the discussion of political questions; when the essay 
takes the place of the sermon, and audiences are 
treated to a geographical and horticultural analysis upon 
the islands of the sea, or a series of disquisitions upon 
Literature, upon Art and Science ; when apologies are 
made for the Bible; when all miracles are explained upon 
rational grounds, or rejected as myths, or tolerated as 
poetry; when the study of Browning is exalted over Paul 
or John; when, in short, "Timely Topics" and matters of 
"modern and immediate interest" are considered su- 
perior to the old gospel, to doctrinal preaching, and to a 
thus saith the Lord, it is not hard to realize that a 
spiritual famine has indeed begun, nor difficult to under- 
stand the apathy, indifference, unspirituality, and down- 
right unbelief in the Church to-day. 

2. They went down into Moab, the enemy's country. 
Ruth, i: 1. 

This is always the result of spiritual famine in the in- 
dividual life. Just as soon as the soul ceases to feed on 
God and his word, it goes out into the stranger country, 
and seeks its resources in regions not owned of God, nor 
owning Him. 

409 



410 STUDIES IN RUTH. 

3. Naomi's husband died. Ruth i : 3. 

The statement is sequential and logical, after spiritual 
famine comes, inevitably, spiritual death. 

4. Her sons took wives of the women of Moab. Ruth 
i: 4. 

The moment the spiritual life runs low, the demands 
of the flesh are roused. The moment the joys of heaven 
are insufficient, the joys of earth grow intensely tempt- 
ing. Where there is no communion in the spirit, there is 
always, and immediately, union with the flesh. 

5. They sojourned in Moab. Ruth i: 4. 

We are called to be pilgrims and strangers on the 
earth: to own this world as a scene through which, we 
are passing in the name of the King, to the hour of 
the Kingdom, and the coming of the King in his glory. 
When spiritual famine and death have set in, and the 
Christian gets married to the things of this life, com- 
pletely taken up with them, he ceases to become either a 
pilgrim or a stranger, he goes into the purchase of real 
estate, he settles down to live in this world, he roots him- 
self into all its ways and claims. Dwellers on the earth, 
not citizens of heaven. 

6. There arose in Naomi's heart a desire to return to 
the land of God. Ruth i: 6. 

She wanted to go back because she was by birth an 
Israelite, and in the bond of the covenant people; when 
the root of the divine relationshp is in the heart; where 
regeneration, spiritul birth, has been a reality, sooner or 
later the heart tires of the unreality of the flesh, its de- 
ceptions and betrayals, and yearns as did the prodigal, 
for home, for the home-land of the soul. 

7. She complains that the Lord has dealt bitterly with 
her. Ruth i: 20. 



STUDIES IN RUTH. 411 

This seems to be the eternal refrain of those who fail 
by the way, charging God with folly, and putting on him 
the responsibility of sorrow, and the harvest of pain. It 
is not the truth: The truth is, we sow what we reap. 
He who sows to the flesh, will of the flesh reap corrup- 
tion; he who sows to unbelief, will reap severance from 
God's mind and spirit, will be in a state of constant dis- 
union and disorder, always running against the will of 
God instead of with it, and thus always provoking judg- 
ment instead of grace. 

8. She went out full, but the Lord brought her back 
empty. Ruth i: 21. 

She had had the sense of God's favor. She had her 
husband and sons, and the blessing of God's Providence, 
his watch-care and love. In face of all that, when the 
test came and it pinched her, she went out from him. 
But he determined to bring her back, and to do that he 
was forced to cut her loose from the things that held 
her in Moab. He cut her loose by cutting off the ties 
that held her. Again and again God finds it necessary to 
take away the things that bind his children in the land of 
Moab. Sometimes it is a husband, or a wife or child. 
Sometimes it is fortune or fame, or a good name; often 
it is health. He takes away all these things on which 
we boast and exalt ourselves. The things which come 
between us and his service. It is enough to make one 
tremble, to see a Christian bound up with the things of 
this life to such a degree, that his face is towards the 
world and his back to God. It makes one tremble, for 
if that man or that woman be really God's child, God will 
put in the knife and cut off the hindering thing, be it 
what it may, and he will bring back his blood-bought 
child, even, if he must bring him back empty. 



412 STUDIES IN RUTH. 

STUDY No. 2. 

1. Ruth takes the place of a dependant before Boaz. 
Ruth ii: 2. 

Gleaning was for beggars. The beggar's place is the 
opportunity for grace in him who can give. As a Gen- 
tile, and not of Israel, Ruth must take the beggar's place, 
and get what grace will give to faith. 

2. Boaz met Ruth's dependence with abundant grace. 
Ruth ii: 8. 

This is the response which the Lord now makes to 
every attitude of dependence on Him. He does net drive 
away. 

He says come : "Him that cometh I will in no wise cast 
out." 

3. Ruth is amazed at the grace of Boaz. ii: 10. 
"Amazing grace" is still the song. 

4. Ruth set aside the ties of nature and went out by 
faith in another. Ruth ii: 11. 

5. Boaz took the place of her losses and comforted 
her. Ruth ii: 13. 

6. He fed her with his own hand. Ruth ii: 16. 

7. She found her place among the workers. Ruth 
ii: 17. 

No sooner was Paul awakened to the grace and fullness 
of his Lord than he cried out, "Lord, what wilt thou have 
me to do?" 

8. He bade her not to be found in the field of another. 
Ruth ii : 22. 

How suggestive ! Our service is unto the Lord, in his 
work, and not unto another, not even unto self : "Ye are 
bought with a price, ye are not your own." 

9. She gleaned in the field to the end of the harvest. 
This is the position of the Church, A gleaner in the 



STUDIES IN RUTH. 413 

world till the end of the harvest, rather till the "time" of 
the harvest, which is the end of the world — i. e., the end 
of this age. 



STUDY No. 3. 

1. Boaz as a kinsman of Ruth. Ruth ii: 1. 

A greater than Boaz, "being in the form of God, 
* * * made himself of no reputation, and took upon 
him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness 
of men. Phil, ii : 6-7. "As the children are partakers of 
flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the 
same," Heb. ii: 14, and thus he became our kinsman, a 
"brother born for adversity." 

2. There was a nearer kinsman than Boaz. Ruth 
iii: 12. 

In spiritual language, that nearer kinsman is the law. 
Just as the nearer kinsman, according to the flesh, was 
under responsibility to raise up the name of the dead 
man and bring in life and sonship, so the law was or- 
dained that it might give life. The law proposed as its 
end, life to all those who should submit themselves to it. 
The responsibility then of the law, speaking of it in the 
personal sense, was to stand in the kinsman's place, and 
give life in the name of the dead man, Adam. 

3. The nearer kinsman failed to do his part. Ruth 
iv: 6. 

Like the kinsman, the law failed to do its part. It 
failed, of course, through the weakness of the flesh, failed 
because the flesh could not respond to the demands of 
the law. Rom. viii : 3. 

4. Boaz came in and took the place of the nearer kins- 
man. Ruth iv : 9. 



414 STUDIES IN RUTH. 

"What the law could not do, in that it was weak 
through the flesh," God has done, in sending his Son "in 
the likeness of sinful flesh," Rom. viii: 3, wherefore it is 
written that we are "married unto Him, * * * that 
we should bring forth fruit — unto God." Rom. vii : 4. 

5. Boaz purchased Ruth for his wife. Ruth iv: 10. 
Christ also loved the Church and gave Himself for it. 

Eph. v: 25. 

6. He betrothed Ruth to himself. II Cor. xi: 21. 

7. Pie advocated her claims in the gate. Ruth iv: 1. 
Christ is in the place of authority to-day. In the 

"Gate of Power." In that upper gate, he is the ceaseless 
advocate of his "bride," the Church. 

8. He married her publicly. 

Christ will own the Church as his "wife," in "the 
public" splendor of the coming glory. 



STUDY No. 4. 

Ruth was a Gentile brought into the place of blessing 
through the failure in Israel. Through Israel's failure as 
a people in responsibility to God, the Gentiles have been 
brought in, and the Church is now being called out from 
among them. 

2. She took the place of dependent faith and got full- 
ness of grace, new life. 

3. The kinsman could not redeem the inheritance, nor 
raise up the name of the dead. 

The law can neither redeem, nor give life. 

4. Boaz took the place of Redeemer and life giver. 
Christ is the life giver, because He is the Redeemer. 

5. Boaz made the woman his wife. 

6. He raised up the name of the dead. 



STUDIES IN RUTH. 415 

As the life giver, Christ has raised up the name of 
man, until, the "man in Christ," will stand in the inherit- 
ance. 



BOAZ IN RUTH. 

1. He is the Kinsman. 

2. The Redeemer. 

3. The Life Giver. 

4. The Advocate. 



Christ. 

> The Antitype 
of Boaz. 



j 



THE POSITION OF THE BOOK OF RUTH. 

Ruth comes in after Judges, and is placed before 
Samuel. That is to say, after the failure in Israel, when, 
according to Judges, "every man did that which was 
right in his own eyes," and before the setting up of the 
kingdom, as recorded in Samuel. Now, as Ruth is a 
Gentile, and a type of the Church, the very position of 
the story teaches the whole general truth of the occasion 
of the Church, and her relation to Israel, and is at once 
not only a prophetic testimony as to dispensational truth, 
but an anticipative record of history. The fact of history 
is, that after the failure in Israel, more particularly after 
the failure in Judah, in the rejection of Christ as the 
King, God brought in the Church, a body and a bride 
for Christ, now being gathered out by the Gospel and 
the Spirit from among the Gentiles ; and the prophecy is, 
that when the fullness of the Gentiles shall be come in, 
that is, when the Church member shall be complete, then 
Christ, like Boaz, will come for His Church, and the 



416 STUDIES IN RUTH. 

kingdom in Israel will be set up. Ruth, as a book placed 
between Judges and Samuel, testifies that the occasion 
of the Church is the failure in Israel, and the relation of 
the Church to the kingdom, is that of a bride who is 
sought for and found by the king, before he comes to sit 
on his throne. 

The position of the book is another evidence of the 
divine superintendence, even, in its arrangement, and 
another witness that it is to be dealt with on higher 
ground than that of mere literature. 



JOHN XI AND JOHN XII. 



jobn XT and Jobn XTL 



THE GOSPEL IN LAZARUS. 

1. The condition of Lazarus : 

He was sick. Sin, a disease, a sickness. Isa. I. 

He was dead. Sin progressive, spiritual death. Eph. 
ii: I. 

He was corrupt. This the end of sin, moral putrefac- 
tion. What a picture of a helpless, hopeless, ruined 
sinner. 

Dead, corrupt in his grave. Rom. ii. 

2. Manner in which Jesus dealt with Lazarus : 

He called him. The Lord calls by Gospel, Spirit, 
Providences. 

Called him to come forth. "Come out," this the gen- 
eric idea of salvation. 

Called him by name. The call is to individuals. 

3. The manner in which Lazarus responded to Jesus : 
He received his word. 

He heard. Power came with the word. Rom. x: 17. 

4. What Lazarus got by hearing the word : 
He got life. John vi : 47. 

He got a place at the supper table with Christ. 
John xii. 



THE WORK OF THE CHURCH. 

1. To take away the stone. 

Every obstacle between a dead sinner and a life-giving 
Saviour. 
We roll away the stone. 

419 



420 JOHN ELEVENTH AND TWELFTH. 

He calls forth the dead. 
We preach the good news. 
He makes it good. 

2. To loose those who are alive but bound with grave 
clothes. 

To teach, this the function of the church. 
Truth only can make free. John viii: 32. 

3. To walk the path of separation with a denied 
Saviour. 

He withdrew with his disciples. John xi: 54. 
This is not the time of our manifestation. 
We wait for the manifestation of the sons of God 
Rom. viii: 19. 



COMFORT BY THE WAY. 

1. Our sickness may be to the glory of God. 

2. Jesus may seem not to answer our prayers. 
His very delay works for good. 

By this delay Lazarus got to know resurrection life. 

3. The Christian does not die, he falls asleep. 

4. Jesus weeps with those who weep — our sorrow is 



his. 



DISPENSATIONAL ORDER. 

1. Jesus is coming to wake his friends out of sleep. 
"I go that I may wake him out of sleep/' 

What a moment it will be. 

2. Those who are living shall not die. 
"We shall not all sleep." I Cor. xv: 51. 

3. Those who are living when he comes, like Martha, 
will go forth to meet him, secretly. 



JOHN ELEVENTH AND TWELFTH. 421 

4. His coming will be, at first, only for his friends; 
known only to the "family that Jesus loves," the Church. 

5. After the resurrection of his friend, Jesus sits 
down to supper with him. 

The Bridal supper after the Rapture. 
Each gets his or her place here. 
Lazarus gets his — at the table. 
Martha, serving. 
Mary, at his feet. 

6. After the supper, the "next day," Jesus goes forth 
openly with his disciples, as King of Israel, to Jerusalem. 

Thus will Christ appear with his Church after he 
comes for her. 

7. The people —the Jews, receive him with acclama- 
tion as their King. 

This they will do when he comes a second time. Zech. 
xii: 10. 

8. After he enters Jerusalem as King, the Greeks, 
the Gentiles, come, saying they would see him also. 
John xii: 21. After the throne in Israel is set up, all the 
nations of the earth shall seek unto Jerusalem, saying, 
we would see the King; and ten men out of the nations 
shall take hold of the skirt of him, that is a Jew, saying, 
"We will go with you; for we have heard that God is 
with you." Zech. viii : 23. 



THE "IMMINENT" COMING OF 
CHRIST. 



Cbe " imminent " Coming of Cbrist. 



Is the Second Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ im- 
minent ? 

Do the Scriptures teach that the Church is to be in a 
constant state of readiness for such an event? 

Benjamin Wills Newton, an English writer of some 
force, a professed believer in the Pre-Millennial Coming, 
and author of a pamphlet entitled, "Five Letters on 
Events Predicted in Scripture as Antecedent to the Com- 
ing of the Lord," denies it. 

He bases his denial, among other things, upon our 
Lord's statement that Peter should live to an old age, 
then die a violent death, and Peter's own statement in 
his second Epistle that he was himself preparing for 
death. 

Newton's followers in this country add to the cata- 
logue which he cites other events predicted before our 
Lord's return, such as the coming of the "wolves" antici- 
pated by Paul after his departure from the Ephesian 
midst, the prophecies concerning the "last times," the 
rise of Antichrist, Paul's vision of the Lord, and the 
Lord's announcement that the Apo?tle must go to Rome, 
the statement of the Apostle James that the husbandman 
has "long" waiting for the fruit of the earth, a state- 
ment made in connection with his exhortation concern- 
ing the coming of the Lord as evidence that neither he 
nor the Church expected the Lord in their day, the fact 
that Peter not only knew he was to die before the 
Lord could come, but that he says nothing about the 
coming in the first sermon he preached to the Gentiles 



425 



426 COMING OF CHRIST. 

in the house of Cornelius, the fact that on the day of 
Pentecost the disciples were not waiting for the Lord, 
but the descent of the Holy Ghost, the antecedent fact 
that the Lord did not tell them to wait at Jerusalem 
for his coming but the coming of the Spirit, the impossi- 
bility that the "two men in white" could have taught 
that the coming of the Lord was imminent in the face 
of his immediate ascent from Olivet, and his command 
to wait for the Spirit, together with the supreme fact 
that our Lord had commanded the disciples to preach 
the Gospel to the whole world, and that such commis- 
sion would require a long time to fulfill. In addition 
to all this it is held that the disciples could not have re- 
ceived a command to wait and watch for the Lord's 
Second Coming before he had yet passed out of the 
region of his First Coming. 

As all these events and conditions must be fulfilled 
before the Lord could return, it is self-evident that 
neither Christ, nor any of his Apostles believed, or 
taught, that the Coming was an imminent event; and 
that, therefore, the doctrine that the Church is to "wait 
for the Son of God from heaven," as a possible event 
in any age of her history, is not a part of the faith 
"once delivered to the saints." Indeed, so it is said, in 
A. D. 59, seven years after Paul had written to the Thes- 
salonians that the Lord was coming, in order that the 
Church might not longer be in error, and that no man 
henceforth should have any excuse, even, to quote Paul 
in favor of the imminency, "the Lord told Paul that his 
Coming was not impending." 

Before our Lord Jesus Christ could possibly come 
there were those who must fall on sleep, there were tasks 
to be done, there was the whole reach of the Gospel age 
which must be traversed. 



COMING OF CHRIST. 427 

The Second Coming of Christ, as an event, therefore, 
most be placed in the nimbus of a "long," a remote 
future. 

Although this argument is set forth by a Pre-Mil- 
lennialist, it is, substantially, the position held by all 
Post-Millenarians ; that is, the Coming of Christ is not 
to be expected in our day, and is not a working doctrine 
for this hour. But the Newtonians have not learned to 
be as logical as the Post-Millenarians; for they teach 
that in exact proportion, as it may be proved that the 
Coming of Christ does not belong to the domain of the 
present, in that exact proportion it is to be held in the 
consciousness of the Church of the present age as a 
particularly vivid and inspiring hope; that instead of 
watching and waiting for the Lord in our day, we are 
to transfer this actual attitude to a far-distant genera- 
tion of the Church, and then, by some intense exercise 
of the mind, retransfer the actual expectancy of that 
Church to our own consciousness, so that it will be just 
as vivid and inspiring as though we stood in the genera- 
tion to whom the Lord at last will come. 

It ought to go without saying, that if the Coming of 
Christ is not possible in our day, nor for many days, or 
years, or it may be for centuries, to talk about it as a pre- 
eminently present, vivid, and inspiring hope is pure non- 
sense. 

That the Church will triumph at some time and fulfill 
all the purpose for which God ordained this age, all 
Christians believe, and in one way or another according 
to their light are working for it; but it is an amazing 
process of thinking that enables any mind to lug in the 
doctrine of the Second Coming, and stand for it par- 
ticularly, if it is not imminent in any age of the Chflrch. 



428 COMING OF CHRIST. 

We are, therefore, forced back upon this question : Was 
the Coming of Christ ever held out to the Church at any 
time in her history as an imminent event? I answer, 
it was ; and in a fashion so plain that he who runs never 
so fast, whether he run over the words of Christ, the 
Church, or the Pastoral Epistles, unless he be wilfully 
blind, may see and read. 

It was delivered as a hope to the Church by Christ our 
Lord, and all his Apostles; and the aggregate teaching 
of the Word is that between us and the Coming of Christ 
for his Church there is not a single predicted event that 
must be fulfilled; that all events predicted between us 
and the Lord's descent into the air for his Church are 
contingent on that one event, and are to be so under- 
stood ; that while the Christian is doing what his hand 
finds to do, is fulfilling the commission that is laid out 
for him in time, he is to be ready for that event which 
is not in the sequences of time, nor bound by its laws. 
He is to be ready for the "unknown" hour in which our 
Lord may come. 

This teaching is a part of the faith "once delivered to 
the saints." 

It was delivered by our Lord Jesus Christ to his dis- 
ciples before the crucifixion. 

He taught them that he would be rejected of the 
Scribes and Pharisees, be put to death, on the third 
day rise again, and "ascend up where he was before." 
(John vi: 62.) 

He taught that after he had ascended they were to 
wait and watch, and be ready for his return in an 
"unknown" hour. 

Listen to his own. words in Mark xiii : 32-37. 



COMING OF CHRIST. 429 

"But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, 
not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, 
but the Father. 

"Take ye heed, watch and pray ; for ye know not when 
the time is. 

"For the Son of man is as a man taking a far journey, 
who left his house, and gave authority to his servants, 
and to every man his work, and commanded the porter 
to watch. 

"Watch ye therefore; for ye know not when the 
master of the house cometh, at even or at midnight, or at 
the cock-crowing, or in the morning ; 

"Lest, coming suddenly, he find you sleeping. 

"And what I say unto you, I say unto all, 'Watch.' " 

In this passage our Lord says : 

(1). He is a householder. 

(2). He is going away. 

(3). While he is away his disciples will form a 
"house." 

(4). In this house he appoints servants with au- 
thority. 

(5). He gives to every one his work. 

(6). The porter is to "watch." 

(7). They of the house do not know when the Master 
will return, whether at "even," or at "midnight," or at 
the "cockcrowing," or in the "morning." 

(8). The angels of heaven do not know. 

(9). He himself does not know. 

(10). Only the Father knows. 

(11). What he says to them he says to all the house, 
"Watch." 

What he says in Mark he emphasizes in Matthew. 



430 COMING OF CHRIST. 

There he says his Coming will be as sudden as the 
flood that drowned the world, as the fire that flamed on 
Sodom. 

He not only exhorts them to watch but he says : "Be 
ye also ready" (Matthew xxiv : 44). 

He warns them that the servant who teaches that the 
Lord for any cause delayeth "his Coming" is an "evil" 
servant; not because he smites his fellow-servants in 
"authority" and drinks with the drunken is he called an 
evil servant, but because he first says that the Lord is 
not at hand, that he delayeth, and thus teaches that there 
is something between the household and the Master of 
the house (Matthew xxv: 48). 

He warns that kind of teachers that they shall be "cut 
off." 

If this language was not an exhortation to those liv- 
ing disciples to be ready and watching for the Lord in 
their day, then language is a juggle, and the Son of God 
is under a condemnation that would be hard enough 
even for an ordinary teacher to bear, to say nothing of 
him who calls himself "The Truth." 

2. It was believed by Christ and his disciples when he 
gave the great commission to evangelize the world. 
They believed it necessarily because he had said that 
neither he nor they knew at what hour he might be 
ordered of the Father to return. To say that he and 
they did not believe, specially, that he did not believe 
what he himself had said, is to make a charge so 
grave that it falls on the head of him who makes it. 

3. It was given by the "two men in white;" for they 
said that this same Jesus who had just been taken up 
should come again "in like manner" as he was taken 
away. 



COMING OF CHRIST. 431 

When he went away there was no flash, of glory, no 
disturbance of the ordinary course of the world. It was 
unseen, unknown to the world, and from the midst of his 
disciples. 

To come back in like manner, he must come to the 
midst of his disciples, unknown to the world, and out- 
side of its ordinary course of events. This is what the 
Lord himself had taught, and what the disciples believed. 
The angels came to seal the Lord's testimony and con- 
firm the faith of his disciples. 

4. They believed it, even on the day of Pentecost 
while waiting for the descent of the Spirit; as those 
taught in the Scriptures of Israel they had a special right 
to believe it; for, according to Saint Peter, this sublime 
event was the begun fulfilment of the prophecy of Joel, 
who declares that that out-pouring was to be in connec- 
tion with the Coming of the Lord. 

5. It was taught by Peter himself immediately upon 
the border of Pentecost. He declared to a great crowd 
of Jews in Solomon's porch that, if the nation would re- 
pent and convert, the times of refreshing would come 
from the presence of the Lord; and he would "send 
Jesus Christ" again to them; and he would do this in 
fulfilment of what "all the prophets from Samuel" had 
spoken and foretold of "these days." 

6. There is no sane reason to doubt that Peter 
preached it to the Gentiles in the house of Cornelius. 

Because no mention is made of it in the report of the 
sermon is not evidence that he did not refer to it. 

In the history of Philip and the Eunuch, it is not said 
that when Philip "preached Jesus" unto him that he also 
preached baptism; yet the fact that the Eunuch breaks 
out so suddenly at sight of the water with the exclama- 



432 COMING OF CHRIST. 

tion, "Here is water; what doth hinder me to be bap- 
tized?" is evidence enough that Philip had preached it; 
the fact that Peter had so recently preached it to the 
Jews would be in evidence that it was a part of his hom- 
iletics in the house of Cornelius to the Gentiles. 

But if it were just possible that Peter did not preach it 
in that sermon he simply "lapsed," or was "unmindful" 
of his commission as a "servant in authority," just as 
preachers and teachers have been all through the ages 
since. 

7. Paul did not unfold any "chronological imminency" 
from the very fact that our Lord had taught that the im- 
minency was unchronological, "unknown," not down in 
any of the calendars of time. 

8. It has been asserted that if the imminency of Christ 
is taught by any of the Apostles, it must have been by 
a revelation that made it distinct from any revelation of 
the Coming in the Old Testament. 

It was so taught. Paul puts it on record in the first 
Epistle ever written to the Church, the Epistle to the 
Thessalonians. 

In the Old Testament we are told the Lord will come 
with all his saints to the Mount of Olives, and that his 
feet shall stand in that day upon that mount which is 
"before Jerusalem on the east" (Zechariah xiv: 4). 

Not a word is said in the prophet concerning any 
resurrection of the dead, or any resurrection "from 
among" the dead. 

But by this special word to the Thessalonians the 
Apostle informs them that the Lord before he comes to 
the Mount of Olives with his saints, will descend into the 
air, and halt there long enough, he does not say how 
long, long enough to raise the dead in Christ, change 



COMING OF CHRIST. 433 

the living, and receive them "in the air;" it is after this 
resurrection and transfiguration into the air that he con- 
tinues on his way with his saints that he may once more 
place his "feet" on that Olivet from which he ascended. 

There is certainly quite a difference between the state- 
ment of the Coming of Christ in Zechariah and that in 
the Thessalonians; there is a notable difference between 
coming for the dead and the living saints into the air, 
and the coming to the earth with all his saints glorified ; 
a vast difference between a coming in which there is no 
resurrection, and a coming in which the resurrection is 
made the specific occasion of the Coming 

And so imminent does Paul regard this particular 
phase of the Coming which he affirms to the Thessalon- 
ians that he exhorts them to comfort themselves con- 
cerning their dead in the light and hope of it. 

That they may make no mistake he says: "We who 
are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord." 

If this language does not mean imminency, then lan- 
guage has no certain meaning, and the particular use of 
it here is concrete puerility. 

To say that the "we" is inclusive of the whole Church 
through all the ages does not change its force, because it 
is in the present that it is used, and means the "we" who 
are alive at any age in which it is spoken. 

But that there may be no misunderstanding of the 
matter the Apostle actually prays that the Thessalonians 
may not die, that they may continue alive till the Lord's 
return. 

Listen to the prayer: 

"And I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body 
be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord 
Jesus Christ" (I Thessalonians v: 23). 



434 COMING OF CHRIST. 

The word to "preserve" signifies among other things 
to "maintain." Let it be assumed that the Apostle is 
praying that the spirit, soul and body may be watched 
over, kept in "custody," so that the entire man "in" the 
Coming may be manifested "blamelessly," in view of 
verse 16 of the previous chapter, where it is specifically 
announced that those who are dead shall come forth in 
the Coming, it is evident that, as he is writing to those 
who are "alive," so he is praying concerning them that 
they may be preserved entire, that there may not be a 
separation between spirit, soul and body, and in that 
hour to which they may be conserved, they may stand 
forth blamelessly, having known how to "possess their 
vessel in sanctification and honor." 

To say he is praying that after death, and between 
that hour and the resurrection of which he had just 
spoken, the body may be preserved in one place, soul 
and spirit in another, weakens the assurance already 
given concerning the dead, and in final analysis makes 
meaningless the prayer. 

If he was praying exclusively that at the Coming of 
Christ they should, whether dead or alive, be found 
blameless, the request for the preservation of the entire 
man has no place; that preservation was, and that pres- 
ervation is, in the very nature of the case, assured to all 
the dead in Christ now. The Apostle was not only pray- 
ing that the Thessalonians to whom he wrote might be 
blameless in the Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, he 
was praying that they all might be preserved alive to 
that Coming, and thus take part among the "we who are 
alive and remain." 

The Apostle does more than this. He sets the Thes- 
salonian assembly before all others as the model assem- 



COMING OF CHRIST. 435 

bly of the whole Church of Christ. He draws special 
attention to their attitude, and commends them for it. 

And what was that model attitude for the whole 
Church? 

Hear his own language ! 

"To zvait for his Son from Heaven, whom he raised 
from the dead, even Jesus." 

That is what the Thessalonian Church was doing in 
A.D. 52, nearly twenty years after our Lord had given 
the original command to "wait;" not only the Church 
corporately, but that which goes to make up the corpo- 
rate church, each individual member of it. Each indi- 
vidual member under the authoritative teaching of the 
Apostle was "waiting for the Son of God from heaven." 

8. What Paul taught the Thessalonians in A.D. 52, he 
taught the Romans in A.D. 58, or six years later. 

He says: "The God of peace shall bruise Satan under 
your feet shortly" (Romans xvi: 20). 

The word here used with the dative and translated 
"shortly," signifies "speedily," "soon," "immediately." 

According to Revelation 20th, the bruising of Satan 
under the feet of the Lord is consequent on the Coming 
of the Lord; thus the Apostle teaches the Romans that 
"speedily," "soon," "immediately," they might expect 
the Coming of the Lord and all its triumphant conse- 
quence. That in giving this assurance the Apostle was 
holding out with it the same thought of resurrection and 
transfiguration that he had taught in Thessalonica is evi- 
dent from the declaration in the eighth chapter, that he 
with them was "waiting for the adoption, to wit, the re- 
demption of the body;" a redemption which he had 
taught the Thessalonians was to occur by resurrection 
and transformation. 



436 COMING OF CHRIST. 

9. It is absolutely unscriptural to say. that any event 
"must come to pass first" before the Lord comes for 
his Church. To say so is to say positively that the hour 
when the Lord will not come is known. But the Lord 
says he is coming in an hour "unknown," and that hour 
unknown might be the very hour when "ye think not." 

10. To exclude Peter's Epistle as a witness to the im- 
minent Coming is to be guilty of the sin of using Je- 
hudi's pen-knife; for, side by side with the declaration 
that he is preparing for death even as the Lord showed 
him, he writes an exhortation to the same people, and in 
the same Epistle, to be looking for the Coming of the 
Day of the Lord. 

"Looking for and hasting the coming of the day" (II 
Peter iii: 12). 

An examination of the fifteenth verse will show that 
Peter is in accord with Paul. 

Peter says the day of the Lord will come as a "thief 
in the night." 

Paul says the same thing. 

A thief comes in the night, that is, before the day is 
manifested. The Coming of Christ in glory is to begin, 
it is to be preceded, by a tremendous event which is 
compared to the coming of a thief. Say nothing about 
what the thief does, what he steals, and on whom the 
loss falls, the fact set forth by this illustration is, that 
before the manifestation of Christ openly, his day is in- 
troduced by an event that comes just as secretly, stealth- 
ily, and unexpectedly, as the coming of a thief. The 
"arrival" of the day is as the arrival of a thief in the 
night. Paul tells us what that event is. It is the de- 
scent of the Lord into the air before he comes to the 
Mount of Olives in judgment. Peter tells the people 



COMING OF CHRIST. 437 

to whom he is writing about his death, even while he is 
writing about it, to look, to be in readiness for that thief- 
like act that shall begin the day; and, therefore, he is 
telling them to be ready for a coming that may take 
place, even, while he is preparing for death. 

ii. Nor do we look in vain in the Pastoral Epistles 
for this teaching concerning the imminent Coming. 

We find it in Paul's Epistle to Titus. 

To him he writes: "Looking for that blessed hope, 
and the glorious appearing of our great God and Sav- 
iour Jesus Christ" (Titus ii: 13). 

Of course the Greek word for "looking" is "expect- 
ing." Thus Paul exhorts Titus to be looking for, ex- 
pecting the Lord in his day. 

And when did Paul write this exhortation? 

I answer, in A.D. 66. 

That is, fourteen years after he had commended the 
Thessalonians for waiting for the Son of God from 
heaven, twelve years after he had written to the Philip- 
pians that he with others was "looking" for the Saviour, 
the Lord Jesus Christ, to change his living but "vile" 
body, and six years after the Lord, in vision, had ordered! 
him to Rome ; that is to say, six years later than the time 
in which certain writers declare that it was impossible 
for Paul, tinder the circumstances, to believe in the im- 
minent Coming. 

Thus the Holy Ghost did affirm precisely to Paul in 
A.D. 52 what the Lord had announced in the beginning 
in respect to the imminent Coming. The Lord Jesus 
Christ did not in A.D. 59, by anything he said, deny to 
Paul what the Holy Ghost had said in 52, but, on the 
contrary, six years later than the "order to Rome," he 
led Paul by the same Spirit to exhort another preacher, 



438 COMING OF CHRIST 

while he preached, to be looking, waiting, for the Com- 
ing of the Lord; and any assertion that at any time the 
"Lord told Paul that his Coming was not imminent," 
is not only extra-scriptural, but so amazingly a denial of 
Scripture, so flagrantly a denial of the Master's word, 
"in an hour when ye think not/' that one is forced to 
ask himself whether he has read aright; whether such 
statements, to say the least, are possible from the pen 
or lips of one who professes to hold in his consciousness 
a "vivid" hope of the Coming of his Lord. 

12. We dare not eliminate James from those who 
taught and lived in the power of the imminent Coming. 

James tells those to whom he writes that the husband- 
man has "long" waiting for the fruit of the earth, but 
he comforts them with the thought that the "Coming 
of the Lord draweth nigh: that he standeth before the 
door." To say that James did not mean that the Coming 
was "nigh," but a "long" way off; that he was not "be- 
fore" the door, not even in sight of it; that he thought 
of a Coming that might be hundred's or thousands of 
years after the poor troubled souls whom he had ex- 
horted to be patient in the view of it had passed into the 
realm of death, is to put on record the most monumental 
piece of spiritual bluff, of unsanctified deception, and, at 
the same time, in the most marked manner, to bear wit- 
ness to the non-inspiration of an Apostle. Even Higher 
Critics and Rationalistic Analysts could not do worse. 

13. What our Lord, and Peter, and Paul, and James 
testify, John, the beloved disciple, who lay on the Mas- 
ter's heart and heard its most intimate pulse-beat, also 
teaches. In his general Epistle he declares that the 
Christian who is alive and hangs his hope on a Coming 
Lord purines himself by that hope, purines himself by 
living in view of its imminency. 



COMING OF CHRIST. 439 

14. When we read the last page of Holy Scripture we 
hear the voice of the Spirit saying "Come;" and he who 
hears that the Lord is surely coming is exhorted by that 
Spirit to "say come." 

The last exhortation is intensely striking. It is the 
prayer commanded not to the Church corporately, but 
to the individual member of the Church. To say that 
this prayer is to be made operative only in a fixed hour 
in a far future long after the individual has offered it and 
fallen on death, is to say that the exhortation has no 
special meaning; if it is fixed his prayer cannot hasten 
it. But precisely as those who love Jerusalem are ex- 
horted by the prophet to give the Lord "no rest" till he 
make that city a praise in the earth, and just as Peter 
exhorts his hearers to hasten the Coming of the day, 
so the Apostle John, under the inspiration of the Spirit, 
exhorts the individual Christian to pray for the Coming 
of the Lord, in the firm belief that his prayer will con- 
tribute in some measure to the quickening of the Lord's 
returning footsteps. 

The last words the ascended Lord speaks in the ear 
of his church are these: "Behold, I come quickly; surely 
I come quickly." 

The last recorded prayer of the Bible is: "Even so, 
come Lord Jesus." 

And when the Bible is closed, and the silence grows 
round him, he who has read that Bible for the first time 
will feel quivering in his soul the inevitable, inexorable 
conclusion that the next thing is the Coming of the 
Lord. 

I assert, then, without the fear of any sane contra- 
diction, that the imminent Coming of our Lord is taught 
in Scripture. 



440 COMING OF CHRIST. 

It is taught in the New Testament. 

It is illustrated in the Old Testament. It is illus- 
trated by the sudden translation of Enoch, who was 
"snatched" away without dying to meet the Lord; by the 
taking of Lot out of Sodom before the judgment fell, and 
that by the "voice" of an angel. 

I repeat that between us and the Coming of the Lord 
for his Church there is not a single predicted event that 
must be fulfilled. 

And all this in the very nature of the case. 

The Church is not a time thing at all. The church 
occupies a parenthesis in time as a consequence of the 
displacement temporarily of the time people, Israel. 

Times and seasons belong unto Israel, not to the 
Church. Israel is to be looking for "signs;" the Church 
is to be waiting for a "sound," the all-compelling sound 
of a voice and a trump. 

The Coming of our Lord, therefore, as it relates to 
the Church, is non-chronological. It is not bound up 
with the sequences of time nor the calendar of events. 

It takes precedence and right of way over all things 
that are predicted in respect of the Church this side of 
the appearing and kingdom. 

It takes the right of way over all such predicted 
events as the death of Peter, as already shown. 

It takes precedence over all such events, even as the 
mercy of the Lord took precedence over his formal and 
explicit prediction that Nineveh should be destroyed in 
forty days ; and was not because of that mercy. 

The death of Peter as a predicted "certainty" was con- 
tingent on the "uncertainty" of the Lord's Coming. If 
the Lord did not come, Peter, moving along the ordi- 
nary sequences of time, would reach old age, and ac- 



COMING OF CHRIST. 441 

cording to the Lord's prophetic vision at that point 
would die, and in the manner indicated. The Lord fore- 
saw that point in time so far as it coincided with Peter's 
history, and could announce the culmination in Peter's 
death, but he did not know (and why and how, does not 
enter into the question here), he did not know, according 
to his own positive statement, zuhen his own advent, 
known only to the Father, might anticipate that hour. 

Peter's death was altogether contingent on the Lord's 
Coming. 

The Lord's Coming for his Church is a contingency 
with which all predicted events have to settle their ac- 
counts. 

In grammatical construction some things are under- 
stood even when not expressed. When, therefore, we 
meet such statements as those concerning Peter's death, 
it is to be understood that the event will take place if the 
Lord does not come. 

What would have taken place if the Lord had come 
before the Gospel was preached and the Church fully 
formed, may be put in the category with the question : 
How would the Church have come into view at all if the 
Jews had accepted the supposedly "sincere" offer of the 
Lord Jesus as their King? All these questions are met 
by the answer that "known unto the Lord are all his 
ways;" and that just as on the rejection of the Lord by 
the Jews, he brought into view this larger age, so his 
unrevealed resources are equal to all developments or 
eccentricities of time. 

With that in this issue we have nothing to do. 

The sufficient fact for every reverent mind that bows 
to the Word of the Lord is that he has said it was pos- 
sible, that it is possible now, that the "unknown" is still 
dominant in the imminency of his Coming. 



442 COMING OF CHRIST. 

It is a poor piece of work to attempt to rob the Church 
of the hope bequeathed it; to attempt to stop the chariot 
wheels of the dominant truth, by piling up the pebbles 
from secondary truths in its way; it is a poor piece of 
work to help those who deny the coming of the Lord 
at all, by building up between the Church and the immi- 
nent person of her Lord all the debris, all the baggage 
of times and seasons and events; it is a poor thing to 
help those who spiritualize all the promised realities of 
the Word, to shut the Church out from that "man in 
glory" who in some sudden "unknown" hour might 
make all his glory hers. 

It must be a thankless task to contribute in any man- 
ner to that condition of doubt and perplexity that will 
lead the Church to abandon the attitude of waiting for 
him, who in the infinite pathos of a measureless sim- 
plicity and sincerity, said to her in the first pure days 
of their betrothal: "Watch therefore; for ye know not 
what hour your Lord doth come." 

It must be a sad task, even though the pen be facile 
that achieves it, to take the eye off of him who is the 
imminent resurrection and the life, and listen with 
strained ears for the thud of the grave-digger's pick, and 
the clods on the coffin lid. 

Nay, rather, let us go back to the days of the Apos- 
tolic Church, the Model Church, and "wait for his Son 
from heaven, even Jesus who delivered us from the wrath 
to come." 

Let us accept the admonition of the angels, not to be 
"gazing up into heaven," as though Christ had gone out 
of the region of our world with all its woes and heart- 
aches, forever; but let us accept the promise that he will 
come in "like manner," and, while we wait, do what our 



COMING OF CHRIST. 443 

hands find to do along the commissioned and planned 
sequences of time, working with all our might in his 
name, lest coming suddenly he find us sleeping. 



THE SYROPHENICIAN WOMAN, 



Cbe Syropbenician CUomam 



Matthew xv : 22-28. 



Mark tells us that the woman was a Greek, a Gentile, 
a Syrophenician. Her daughter was sick, grievously 
vexed with a devil (demon). 

As soon as Jesus came into the coasts of Tyre and 
Sidon she met him and besought him to have mercy on 
her child. 

But Jesus apparently paid her no attention, he pre- 
served a strict silence; he preserved that silence in the 
face of her most insistent entreaties. 

His irresponsiveness was so marked, his silence so ob- 
trusive, so suggestive, that the disciples begged him to 
send her away, saying that her noise and lamentations 
were offensive. 

To them he at once replied, declaring that he was not 
sent but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. 

No sooner did the woman hear this than she fell at his 
feet and worshipped him, saying: "Lord, help me." 

He now spoke to her, telling her that he could not take 
the children's bread and cast it to the dogs. 

Instantly, she cried out: "Truth, Lord! yet the dogs 
eat the crumbs which fall from the Master's table." 

Then Jesus answered that her faith was indeed a 
great faith; and it should be done as she wished. 

The record adds: "And her daughter was made whole 
from that very hour." 

Three things are to be noted here: 

1. This woman appealed to our Lord as the Son of 
David. 



447 



448 THB SYROPHBNICIAN. 

In doing so she took Israel's ground ; for, as the Son 
of David he came to that people, and to that people only. 

He himself says: 

''I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of 
Israel." 

She was not of the house of Israel, she was a Gentile ; 
as a Gentile she had no claim on the Son of David; as 
the Son of David he could make no response to her. 
Hence, he answered her not a word, he was silent; not 
because indifferent; not because he was trying her faith, 
but because she claimed blessing through a relationship 
that was not hers. She appealed to a title that had no 
operative meaning to one not in the bond and covenant 
of the chosen people. 

2. She saw her error, owned him as Lord, fell down 
at his feet, worshipped him as Jehovah, and asked him 
to help her. 

But neither as Lord could he respond; for, as Lord of 
the whole earth he had called but one nation to be his 
people; and for this people alone had he provided a 
typical ground of approach in the Levitical sacrifices. 

This woman being a Gentile had no ground of ap- 
proach; as a Gentile her place was that of a dog, not 
that of a child. 

And without sparing her the Lord puts her in the 
dog's place. 

He says, you are a Gentile dog, I cannot take the 
bread, I cannot take the blessings, which in covenant, 
belong to my people, and give them to you who are the 
dogs. 

3. The woman rises at once to the occasion. She 
does not dispute. She says: "Truth, Lord." 

In saying this, she owns herself as a Gentile, a dog. 



THE SYROPHBNICIAN. 449 

She takes without controversy the place assigned her; 
and then goes further; she takes the attitude of a beggar, 
of one who has no claim, no ground whatever except in 
the over-abounding grace of the Lord. She says : "Lord, 
there are crumbs which fall from the Master's table. I 
believe that thou art not only the Lord of Israel, but the 
God of the whole earth, and the God of all grace; and 
that thou hast sufficient in thy grace, thy mercy, to meet 
my case." 

The Lord owns a faith which rises above his silence; 
a faith which is willing to take the lowest place, even 
that of a despised Gentile dog, and in that lowly place 
worship, praise, and adore him. 

The dispensational and moral value of the incident is 
immense. 

Dispensationally, we are taught that the Lord abides 
by the distinctive obligations of the respective ages ; that 
is to say, he owns that there are distinctive ages or dis- 
pensations ; and that these are not to be confounded, 
neither the restrictions of one, nor the liberty of another. 

He sets before us the truth that there is to be no con- 
fusion in divine matters; that we are not to take the 
things that belong to one class and give them to another. 
We are not to take, as is so commonly done by modern 
theologians, promises which belong to one class, and give 
them to another ; we are not, for example, to take the 
promises which belong to Israel and give them to the 
Gentiles ; we are not to mix up the age of Law and Grace, 
to confound the Church with the kingdom; nor to insist 
that the rule which holds good for Israel must hold good 
for the Gentile. 

Morally, we learn the priceless value of that faith 
which in spite of all obstacles rises up straight-away to 



450 THE SYROPHENICIAN. 

the heart of infinite grace and love and casts itself there 
in measureless abandon: the faith that trusts where it 
cannot trace, and will not take a "no" as the final answer 
from God. 



THE LEAVEN. 



1 1 



De Ceaven, 



According to Dr. Adam Clarke, "Leaven is a species 
of corruption produced by fermentation and tends to 
putrefaction." 

The Children of Israel were commanded to put away 
leaven during the observance of the Passover. "Even 
the first day ye shall put away leaven out of your 
houses : for whosoever eateth leavened bread from the 
first day until the seventh day, that soul shall be cut 
off from Israel." Ex. xii : 15. 

Leaven must not come in contact with the offering 
of blood. "Thou shalt not offer the blood of my sac- 
rifice with leaven." Ex. xxxiv : 25. 

Leaven must be excluded from the meat offering. 
"No meat offering which ye shall bring unto the Lord 
shall be made with leaven." Lev. ii : 11. 

Leaven is to be put away because the meat offering 
is holy. "Eat it without leaven beside the altar, for 
it is most holy." Lev. x: 12. 

The Son of God says : "Take heed and beware of the 
leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees." Matt, 
xvi : 6. 

He warns the disciples against the "leaven of Herod." 
Mark viii : 15. 

Paul writes the Corinthian Church : "Purge out the 
old leaven." I Cor. v : 7. 

Gathering up this testimony and examining it in order, 
we discover that : 

First. Leaven is in its nature corrupt, and corrupting 
that with which it is mixed. 



433 



454 THE LBAVBN. 

Second. It is recognized as so corrupt and corrupt- 
ing that it is required of God to be put away from 
everything which was intended to typify Christ, his sac- 
rifice, or divine and holy things. 

Third. Our Lord stamps it as the symbol of corrupt 
and corrupting doctrine. After his warning against 
the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees the disciples 
reasoned among themselves and supposed he meant 
bread ; he corrected their error, and then it is added, 
''Then understood they how that he bade them not 
beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of 
the Pharisees and Sadducees." Matt, xvi: 12. 

Leaven symbolizes the doctrine of the Pharisees. 

The Pharisees had a form of godliness but denied the 
power. This formalism without power made them 
hypocrites, and Jesus testifies, "Beware of the leaven 
of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy." Luke xii: I. A 
form of godliness denying the power is ritualism. 

The leaven of the Pharisees is Ritualism. 

But leaven symbolizes the doctrine of the Sadducees. 
The Sadducees believed neither in angel nor spirit. They 
denied the resurrection. This is materialism. 

The leaven of the Sadducees is Materialism. 

Fourth. The apostle Paul uses leaven to set forth 
corrupt doctrine. "This persuasion cometh not of him 
that calleth you. A little leaven leaveneth the whole 
lump." Gal. v: 8 — 9. 

"Persuasion," and its influence, is compared to the 
work of leaven. This persuasion was the doctrine of 
Judaizing teachers who taught that the Gentiles must 
needs be circumcised, and walk under the law as a rule 
of life. This is Legalism. 

The "little leaven" among the Galatians is Legalism. 



THE LBAVBN. 455 

Ritualism ! Materialism ! Legalism ! Each of them cor- 
rupt and corrupting doctrines, and indicated by leaven. 

Fifth. Leaven is used by the Son of God to warn 
against the character of Herod: "Beware of the leaven 
of Herod." Mark viii: 15. 

The leaven of Herod was manifested the day that 
Christ was crucified. "The same day Pilate and Herod 
were made friends." Luke xxiii : 12. 

Pilate stands for the world, Herod represents the pro- 
fessed follower of God. Herod making friends with 
Pilate is the follower of God becoming a friend of the 
world. 

The leaven of Herod is Worldliness. 

Sixth. The apostle uses leaven to portray the vain 
boasting of the flesh. "Your glorying is not good. 
Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole 
lump?" I Cor. v:6. 

Glorying is compared to the working of leaven. He 
uses a word which describes its effect in dough : "Ye 
are puffed up." Verse 2. 

The leaven among the Corinthians is Vain- glorying. 

Seventh. He makes use of the leaven to emphasize 
his warning against the works of the flesh. "The leaven 
of malice and wickedness." I Cor. v : 8. 

Worldliness ! Vainglory ! Malice ! Wickedness ! Evi- 
dences, each one of them, of fleshly energy and lust, 
and symbolized according to the Spirit of God, by 
leaven. 

Summing up, it is manifest that leaven is used 
uniformly to signify either corrupt doctrine or the energy 
and lust of the Hesh. 

Two exceptions are to be found in Scripture to the 
exhortation against leaven. The first occurs in Leviticus 



456 THE LBAVHN. 

xxiii: 17: "Ye shall bring out of your habitations two 
wave loaves of two-tenth deals : they shall be of fine 
flour ; they shall be baken with leaven ; they are the first- 
fruits unto the Lord." 

.The first fruits was the firs.t sheaf of the harvest. It 
was lifted up before the Lord on the morrow after the 
sabbath, viz., the first day of the week. Lev. xxiii: 10, 
11. "Christ is the first fruits." I Cor. xv: 23. The 
first to arise from among the dead. The sheaf of the 
first fruits, therefore, represents the resurrection of 
Christ. Fifty days after the first sheaf was presented 
it was made into flour and baked in these two loaves. 
"And ye shall count unto you from the morrow after 
the sabbath, from the day that ye brought the sheaf of 
the wave offering ; seven sabbaths shall be complete : 
even unto the morrow after the seventh sabbath shall 
ye number fifty days ; and ye shall offer a new meat 
offering unto the Lord. Ye shall bring out of your 
habitations two wave loaves of two tenth deals; they 
shall be of fine flour ; they shall be baken with leaven ; 
they are the first fruits unto the Lord." Lev. xxiii : 

I5—I7- 

Fifty days after the resurrection of Christ, on the day 

of Pentecost (penteekostos, fiftieth), the disciples "were 
all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there 
came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, 
and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And 
there appeared unto them cloven tongues, like as of fire, 
and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled 
with the Holy Ghost." Acts ii : 1 — 4. 

Thus endued with power from on high they were bap- 
tized in the Holy Ghost into one body. All this as the 
result of Christ's resurrection and ascension. They were 



THE LBAVEN. 457 

the result of Christ's resurrection in this new relation- 
ship, just as the loaves were the result of the coming 
forth and the lifting up of the -first sheaf. The Hour of 
that first sheaf was in the loaves and the life and power 
of the risen Son of God were in these disciples through 
the Holy Ghost which he shed forth. The loaves, there- 
fore, typify the Church, one leaf formed out of the Jew- 
ish assemblies, another out of the Gentile assemblies, con- 
stituting one body united to the Man in the Glory. 

As believers we are before God in the character of the 
Risen One, with no sin on us (that is, against us), but 
as those who still walk on earth and in bodies of mor- 
tality there is sin in us. Leaven is a type of sin in the 
flesh, therefore leaven is introduced into these loaves to 
show that while before God we are clean in Christ, yet 
in us, in our flesh, there dwelleth the nature of corruption 
and sin. Thus leaven in the offering is not only in 
accord with the uniform teaching of the Word about it, 
but is another evidence of the divine accuracy of the 
types. 

The other exception is in Amos iv : 4, 5 : "Come to 
Bethel, and transgress ; at Gilgal multiply transgression 
* * * and offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving with 
leaven." Leaven is here set over against transgression, 
while the context shows conclusively that the Lord is 
speaking in judgment and rebuke concerning the cor- 
ruption and hypocrisy in Israel. 

In the light of God's unvarying testimony about leaven 
let us examine two remarkable passages : 

"Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a 
little leaven leaveneth the whole lump? Purge out, 
therefore, the old leaven that ye may be a new lump, 
as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is 



458 THE LBAVBN. 

sacrificed for us. Therefore let us keep the feast, not 
with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and 
wickedness ; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity 
and truth." I Cor. v : 6—8. 

Three things are mentioned : the old leaven, a new 
lump, ye are unleavened. 

First. The: old leaven. The old leaven is that 
which corrupts man and manifests itself in the evil ten- 
dencies already described. It is his fallen fleshly nature. 

Second. The) new lump. Primarily the Corinthian 
assembly, afterwards the individual member of Christ in 
that assembly, looked at as without leaven. A new na- 
ture in which is no sinful flesh. The new nature received 
in union with a risen Christ. 

Third. Ye; are) unleavened. In this we have the 
standing and character of the Church of Christ even 
down here and now. "As he is, so are we in this world." 
I John iv: 17. "Faultless before the presence of his 
glory." Jude xxiv. 

And just because these Corinthians stood before God 
in Christ's perfection, the apostle urges them to purge 
out the old leaven, cast off the works of the flesh, cease 
their glorying, and put away from their midst the 
unclean man, the fornicator, whom they had tolerated 
and not judged. As leaven was rigorously excluded 
from the typical passover, there must be no toleration 
of the working of leaven, or the flesh, in connection with 
the Antitype. 

As Israel kept the feast, so must the Church. Keep- 
ing the feast is owning the judgment of death and appro- 
priating its benefits. The Christian is to own the judg- 
ment of God against the flesh and reckon it put to death, 
judicially, in the death of Christ. He is to cast it out like 



THE LEAVEN. 459 

old leaven as corrupt and corrupting, nor ever seek to 
purify it, lead it to God, or change it, but purge it out. 

He is to appropriate the deliverance of that judgment, 
own that it has delivered him from dependence on the 
flesh, that he is no longer a debtor to the flesh to live 
after the flesh, even for righteousness ; but that he has 
been made free by the dead body of Christ, in order that 
he might be married to another, even to him who is 
raised from the dead (see Rom. 7), and recognizing 
himself in the risen Christ, allow that risen one to walk 
in him and manifest continually that he is a nezv lump. 

The other passage to be considered is Matt, xiii : 33 : 
"Another parable spake he unto them : The kingdom 
of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took, and 
hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was 
leavened." By many expositors, this parable is used 
to illustrate the final triumph of the Gospel in this age. 
The leaven is made to serve as a symbol of the Gospel, 
the woman who hides it as the Church, and the three 
measures of meal the world, into which the Church is to 
introduce the Gospel until the world itself shall be per- 
meated by, and brought under subjection to it. 

This parable stands fourth in order of the seven re- 
corded, and sustains a relationship, both intimate and 
logical, to the preceding ones. 

In the sower we are shown how the Gospel would be 
received during the absence of the Lord. Of the four 
parts of ground over which the sower went forth, only 
a fourth brought fruit to perfection, and that in varying 
degree. No hint is here given that at any one time r 
during the preaching of the Word, would it be uni- 
versally received. History, so far, has not justified any 
such confidence, or warranted us in reading into the 



460 THE LBAVBN. 

parable any other conclusion than that of limited recep- 
tion. 

In the second parable an enemy secretly introduces 
tares, hides them among the good seed ; that is, an en- 
deavor is made to corrupt the seed already sown. When 
the wheat comes forth the tares appear also, and so 
closely resemble the wheat that orders are given not to 
root them up till the harvest. The harvest is explained 
to be the end of the world, or age {aion, the preceding 
word rendered world is kosmos) ; and whatever else is 
taught, and much else is taught, we are shown unmis- 
takably that the field, which is the world, not the Church, 
is a mixed Held till the very end of the age. 

Now, if the Lord intended us to believe that the whole 
world would be permeated by the Gospel he could have 
illustrated that fact by pointing us to an unmixed field, 
a field all wheat. On the contrary he uses a figure 
which, in strongest terms, declares that the children of 
the kingdom and the children of the devil will dwell 
side by side, in this world, till the end of the age. 

In the parable of the mustard tree there is pictured 
the growth of the professing church from small begin- 
nings. But this tree gives shelter to the birds of the 
air, and the birds are used in the parable of the sower 
to indicate the presence and power of the "wicked one." 
We have no authority for pressing a parable to 
interpretation in all its details ; but as the birds 
have already been used as factors in interpretation, 
it ought not to seem a strained application to learn 
through this use of them, that the professing church 
in proportion as it becomes rooted in the earth 
will afford a nesting-place and shelter for Satan. And, 
as in the preceding parable he introduces himself among 



THE LEAVEN. 461 

the good seed of the kingdom in the shape of tares, the 
interpretation would appear to fall in the line of direct 
analogy ; but without claiming this, and more which 
seems plainly taught, it is at least demonstrable that 
nothing in the symbolry hints at the undivided triumph 
of the Gospel in this dispensation. 

The parable of the leaven follows immediately that of 
the mustard tree, and forces us to a retrospection in 
order to see the "drift" from which we approach it. 

Beginning with the parable of the sower, indicating, 
as it does, a not universal reception of the Gospel, going 
on with the story of the tares, presenting to us the intro- 
duction of a false and corrupt profession of Christianity, 
and a world divided between God and Satan till the end, 
and closing with the mustard tree, showing us the birds 
which our Lord uses as a symbol of evil and uncleanness 
nesting in and finding shelter in the professed kingdom 
of heaven in this age, are we warranted to expect — 
would we have any legitimate ground on which to base 
our expectation — that the next parable would reverse 
the whole course of the previous teaching, and announce 
to us the universal reception of the Gospel ? The answer 
to such a question must be in the negative. No such 
expectation is or could be warranted. And when it is 
added that the symbol on which such an interpretation 
relies is the known and confessed symbol in every other 
scripture to set forth corruption and sin, such an ex- 
egesis of the parable is ruled out of court. 

But apart from all that has been said, the evidence 
against such a rendering lies in the parable itself. 

First. The woman hides the leaven in the lump, but 
the Gospel is to be made knoivn openly: "What I tell 
you in darkness speak ye in the light; and what ye hear 



462 THE LBAVBN. 

in the ear, that preach ye on the house-tops." Matt. 
x: 2J. 

Second. The three measures of meal constitute a 
lump which is leavened. But in Leviticus ii: 15, we 
read : "A meat offering shall be of fine flour ; * * * 
it shall be of fine flour unleavened." The meat offer- 
ing sets forth the perfect man Christ Jesus, the Head of 
the Church, in glory; it sets forth also, the Church, the 
body of Christ, on earth, as we have already seen, and 
as the apostle conclusively proves : "Purge out there- 
fore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as YE 
are unleavened." I Cor. v: 7. The three measures 
of meal, or the lump which is leavened, therefore, does 
not set forth the world, but the Church — at first the true 
Church in Christ, and then mixed with it the outward 
profession of Christ. And it may be mentioned here 
as highly suggestive, that at this present moment Christ- 
endom is divided into three great religious measures or 
parts : The Greek Church, the Roman Church, the 
Protestant Church. As the lump is not the world, the 
teaching which makes leavening the lump, the leavening 
of the world, falls to the ground, and with it the figure 
of the Gospel leavening the world. 

Now reading leaven in the light of the divine defi- 
nition as corrupt doctrine and fleshly practice, and the 
three measures of meal as the profession of Christ in this 
age, it is evident that we have in this parable a prophecy 
that the time is coming when Christendom will be filled 
with the evils of corrupt doctrine and fleshly energy, and 
that so far from overcoming the world by means of her 
unleavened bread of sincerity and truth, the Church will 
herself, if not watchful, be overcome of error, and world- 
liness, and fleshly lust. Nor does examination into the 



THE LBAVBN. 463 

"present state of religion" seem in any wise to contra- 
dict the prophecy. 

To all spiritually minded believers there is in this 
revelation of the truth an exhortation to own the in- 
dwelling leaven, cast off and cast out the works of the 
flesh, and walk before God in the new and divine life of 
the risen and coming Man. And all the more as we 
see "the Day approaching." 



SEVEN THINGS ABOUT LOT. 



Seven tbings about Cot 



Lot is a representative character. He is a saved man, 
elected and called, with Abraham, to the same country, 
with this difference, that while Abraham types out the 
faithful, Lot sets forth the unfaithful, Christian. 

There are seven clearly marked stages in this man's 
career. 

I. Lot chose his inheritance after the sight of his eyes. 
Gen. xiii: io-ii. 

He left God out of the matter and chose his portion 
according to his best interest; not so Abraham; he was 
willing to abide in faith that God would fulfill unto him 
the promises of good. 

Unlike Abraham, but just like Lot, many Christians 
are to-day seeking their own interest first, and the cause 
of Christ last ; unwilling to trust all to him who has said, 
"Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteous- 
ness; and all these things shall be added unto you." 
Matt, vi: 33. This choice of Lot was the beginning of 
all his subsequent disasters. 

II. Lot pitched his tent toward Sodom. Gen. xiii : 12. 
Sodom is a type of this world. Lot began with a 

worldly choice ; no wonder that he gravitated toward the 
world. 

Many Christians are in the second stage; they are not 
exactly in the world, but they are pitching their tents 
toward Sodom. 



467 



468 LOT. 

III. Lot took up his dwelling place in Sodom. Gen. 
xiv: 12. "Whatsoever a man scfweth, that shall he also 
reap." Gal. vi: 7. 

He started with a worldly choice, and he reaped world- 
ly sympathies, and wordly desires, and, by the law of 
continuance, was driven to gratify them; once tamper 
with the unclean thing, and you will soon lose all power 
to resist its influence ; and by and by, you will even dare 
to justify in act, that from which you once shrank back 
in thought. 

Alas ! how many who wear the name of Christ are to- 
day living not in heavenly places with him, but dwelling 
in Sodom, subject to its sin. 

IV. Lot took office in Sodom. He sat in the gate. 
Gen. xix: 1. He become identified with its interests, a 
sustainer of its policy. 

Behold Christians to-day, seeking office and power at 
the hands of a world that killed their Lord, a world of 
whom he has said, its friendship is enmity with God; 
and, "whosoever, therefore, will be a friend of the world, 
is the enemy of God." James iv: 4. 

Instead of testifying against this evil and untoward 
generation, the church is supporting it. 

V. By entering into Sodom, Lot lost his testimony. 
Gen. xix: 14. The world despised him. How keenly 
the world despises a worldly Christian, one who does all 
that they do, and yet professes to be elect of God and an 
heir of glory. What a subject for contempt is that man, 
be he layman or minister, who plunges into the world 
and its economies, who digs deep the foundation of his 
interest, in the soil of earth ; and then seeks to warn men 
of the judgments that are coming. 



LOT. 469 

The very angels wno came to warn Lot thought him 
so unworthy that, at first, they refused the shelter of his 
house; preferring all night in the streets to the com- 
panionship of a man who had betrayed his Lord. 

VI. When the city was destroyed, Lot lost all his 
works. 

The city that he tried to improve became a waste. 

There are many men, honest no doubt, who are seek- 
ing to moralize or reform the world. But their efforts 
must be fruitless, for judgment has been pronounced 
upon it. 

At the coming of Christ, all Christians who are dwell- 
ing in it, whether from pure worldly motives and sympa- 
thies, or from honest desires to improve it, shall alike 
have their works destroyed. The command of God to 
his people is, "Come out from among them, and be ye 
separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean 
thing; and I will receive you." II Cor. vi: 17. Or 
again, he exhorts the child of God, "to keep himself un- 
spotted from the w r orld." James i: 2J. 

VII. Lot escaped only with his life. Read I Cor. 
iii: 13-15. 

At the judgment seat of Christ, where only the saved 
shall appear, many a saved person will receive no reward. 
Their works will be burned up. They will be saved, yet, 
so as through the fire; saved, because salvation is by 
grace, and not by merit. And, because, their works 
were wood, hay and stubble ; because they did not im- 
prove their opportunities, and dealt in work that was only 
rubbish ; because they were downright disobedient to the 
will of God in their work; because, in short, they built 
wrong material into the temple of God, they will suffer 
loss ; hence, the solemn admonition, "Behold, I come 



47o LOT. 

quickly ; hold that fast which thou hast, that no man 
take thy crown." Rev. iii: n. 

Behold the record and the end of a worldly Christian, 
saved, but not crowned. Having life, but not authority 
in the kingdom. 

Whose example will you follow, Lot or Abraham? 



FOUR JUDGMENTS. 



four judgments. 



The scriptures teach that there are four judgments. 

i. The judgment of the cross. 

The cross revealed the judgment of God against sin. 
"For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no 
sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God 
in him." II Cor. v: 21. "Who his own self bare our 
sins in his own body on the tree." I Pet. ii: 24. "For 
Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the 
unjust." I Pet. iii : 18. 

In that terrible hour he appeared as the substitute in 
behalf of his people to receive the judgment due to them, 
and therefore, concerning every one that believeth in him, 
it is written, "He hath everlasting life, and shall not 
come into condemnation" (judgment). John v: 24. 

2. The judgment seat of Christ 

"For we (Christians) must all appear before the judg- 
ment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the 
things done in his body, according to that he hath done, 
whether it be good or bad." II Cor. v : 10. 

The apostle is addressing Christians : he is speaking 
only of Christians; and as all will be in glorified resur- 
rection-bodies when they do appear at the judgment 
seat, it is evidently not a question of salvation, but of 
reward according to service. Those who have been 
faithful shall receive a reward : those who have not been 
faithful shall suffer loss. "The fire shall try every man's 
(every Christian man's) work, of what sort it is. If 
any man's work abide, which he hath built thereupon, 
(on Christ), he shall receive a reward. If any man's 
work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss : but he him- 



473 



474 FOUR JUDGMENTS. 

self shall be saved: yet so as by (through) fire." I Cor. 
iii: 13-15. 

3. The judgment of the nations. 

This takes place at the coming of Christ from heaven 
with his Church to the Mount of Olives. "Then shall 
the Lord go forth and fight against those nations, as 
when he fought i,n the day of battle. And his feet shall 
stand in that day upon the Mount of Olives." Zech. 
xiv : 3, 4. "Let the heathen be wakened, and come up 
to the valley of Jehoshaphat : for there will I sit to judge 
all the heathen round about." Joel iii: 12. "For I will 
gather all nations (that is the nations of the restored 
Roman Empire) against Jerusalem." Zech. xiv: 2. 
"When the son of man shall come in his glory, and all 
the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the 
throne of his glory ; and before him shall be gathered all 
nations." Matt, xxv: 31, 32. 

In this judgment the living and not the dead appear. 
There is no thought of resurrection in the scene : it is 
smiting the nations with a rod of iron just previous to the 
establishment of the kingdom. 

4. The judgment of the Great White Throne. 

This occurs at the close of the thousand years. This 
is the second resurrection : the coming forth of the 
Christless dead to receive final retribution. "The rest 
of the dead lived not again till the thousand years were 
finished. * * * And I saw a great white throne. 

* * * And I saw the dead, small and great stand 
before God. * * * and the dead were judged. 

* * * and whosoever was not found written in the 
book of life was cast into the lake of fire." Rev. xx: 

5-15. 



THE TWO-FOLD COMING. 



the two-fold Coming. 



The second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, while 
spoken of as one great event, has two separate parts. 
It is of the utmost importance to distinguish, and never 
to confound them. 

In the first part he comes as a thief. Rev. xvi : 15. 

In the second part he comes as lightning. Luke xvii : 
24. 

In the first, The morning star. Rev. xxii : 16. 

In the second, Sun of righteousness. Mai. iv: 1, 2. 

In the first, As a bridegroom. Matt, xxv : 1 — 6. 

In the second, As a king. Matt, xxv: 31 — 34. 

In the first, To the marriage. Matt, xxv : 10. 

In the second, To the throne of his glory. Matt. 
xxv : 3 1 • 

In the first, To the virgins. Matt, xxv: 1. 

In the second, To the nations. Matt, xxv : 32. 

In the first, Before the marriage. Matt, xxv: 1. 

In the second, After the marriage. Luke xii : 36. 

In the first, For his bride. John xvi : 3. 

In the second, With his bride. Col. iii: 4. 

In the first, Into the air. I Thess. iv: 17. 

In the second, descends to the Mount of Olives. Zech. 
xiv : 3, 4. 

In the first, comes to receive his bride to himself. John 
xiv : 3. 

In the second, comes to be received by repentant Israel. 
Zech. xi : 10. 

In the first, comes to take his bride into the heavenly 
city. John xiv: 1 — 5. Cant, iv: Eph. v: 2J. 

477 



478 THE TWO-FOLD COMING. 

In the second, comes to enter as king into the earthly 
Jerusalem. Matt, xxv: 31. Jer. iii: 17. Zech. viii : 3. 
Luke i : 32, 33. 

The first stage is called "Our gathering together unto 
him." II Thess. ii : 1. 

The second stage is called "The revelation of Jesus 
Christ from heaven." II Thess. i : 7. 

The first stage, "The Blessed Hope." Titus ii: 13. 

The second stage, "The Glorious Appearing." Titus 
ii: 13. 

The first stage or part is called the Coming, from the 
Greek word parousia, and signifies presence. 

The second stage is called the "Brightness of his com- 
ing," and is from the Greek word epiphaniea, meaning 
brightness or glory: thus the epiphaniea of his parousia 
is the glory of his presence. In other words, when he 
first descends into the air to receive his church, he will 
be invisible to the world ; after an interval during which 
the kingdom of Antichrist is running its course on earth, 
he will manifest himself to the gaze of all the nations 
gathered at Jerusalem, and descend in visible glory and 
power to overthrow them. 



A BIBLE READING ON CHRISTIANS. 



H Bible Reading on €I)ri$tian$. 



i. What we were. 

"Dead in trespasses and sins." "We were dead in 
sins." Eph. ii : I, 5. — ''And were by nature children of 
wrath, even as others." Eph. ii : 3. "So death passed 
upon all men for that all have sinned." Rom. v : 12. 
"Being in time past, Gentiles in the flesh, * * * 
at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from 
the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the 
covenant of promise, having no hope, and without God 
in world: * * * ye were far off." Eph. ii: 11-13. 

2. Where we were. 

"The men which thou gavest me out of the world/' 
John xvii : 6. "In time past ye walked according to the 
course of this world, according to the prince of the power 
of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of 
disobedience: among whom also we all had our conver- 
sation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the 
desires of the flesh and of the mind." Eph. ii : 2, 3. 

3. What we are now. 

a. In relation to God. 

"For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ 
Jesus." Gal. iii : 26. "Beloved, now are we the Sons of 
God." I John iii : 2. "Whosoever believeth that Jesus 
is the Christ, is born of God." I John v: 1. "As he is, 
so are we in this world." I John iv: 17. "We are the 
children of God, and if children, then heirs ; heirs of God, 
and joint heirs with Christ." Rom. viii: 16, 17. 

b. In relation to the world. 

"Ye are my witnesses," saith the Lord. Isa. xliii: 10. 
"And ye shall be witnesses unto me, * * * unto the 

481 



482 CHRISTIANS. 

uttermost part of the earth." Acts i: 8. "Ye are the 
light of the world." Math, v : 14. "Ye shine as lights 
in the world." Phil, ii: 15. "We are ambassadors for 
Christ." II Cor. v : xx. 

4. Where we are. 

"Raised up together and made to sit together in 
Heavenly places in Christ Jesus." Eph. ii : 6. "Risen 
with Christ." Col. iii : 1. "Your life is hid with Christ 
in God." Col. iii : 3. 

5. What we have. 

"God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you." Eph. iv : 
32. "Your sins are forgiven you for his name's sake." 
I John ii : 12. 

"Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on 
me hath everlasting life." John vi : 47. "We have the 
mind of Christ." I Cor. ii: 16. "All things are yours: 
* * * the world, or life, or death, or things present, 
or things to come; all are yours." I Cor. iii: 21, 22. 

6. What we shall be. 

"We know that when He shall appear, we shall be like 
him ; for we shall see Him as He is." I John iii : 2. 
"And hast made us kings and priests : and we shall reign 
on the Earth." Rev. v : 10. 

"They shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall 
reign with Him a thousand years." Rev. xx : 6. 

7. Where we shall be. 

a. If we die. 

"Absent from the body, present with the Lord." II 
Cor. v : 8. 

b. If Jesus comes. 

"We which are alive and remain shall be caught up 
together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in 
the air : and so shall we ever be with the Lord." I Thes. 
iv: 17. "Then shall ye also appear with Him in glory." 
Col. iii : 4. 



CHRISTIANS. 483 

"And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount 
of Olives, * * * and the Lord my God shall come, 
and all the saints with him." Zech. xiv : 4, 5. 

"Those that wait upon the Lord * * * shall in- 
herit the earth." "For such as be blessed of him shall 
inherit the earth. The righteous shall inherit the land 
and dwell therein forever." Ps. xxxvii : 9, 22, 23. 

"Blessed are the meek : for they shall inherit the earth." 
Math, v : 5. "And I saw a new heaven and a new earth. 
* * * and he that sat upon the throne said behold I 
make all things new." Rev. xxi: 1-5. 

8. What is our duty now — 

a. In relation to God. 

"I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of 
God, that ye present your bodies, a living sacrifice, holy, 
acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. 
And be not conformed to this world: but be ye trans- 
formed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove 
what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of 
God." Rom. xii : 1, 2. "For ye are bought with a price : 
therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, 
which are God's." I Cor. vi : 20. 

b. In relation to one another. 

"First gave their own selves unto the Lord, and unto 
us by the will of God." II Cor. viii : 5. "Bear ye one 
another's burdens." Gal. vi: 2. "We then that are 
strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not 
to please ourselves." Rom. xv: 1. 

c. In relation to the world. 

"Shine as lights in the world; holding forth the word 
of life." Phil, ii: 15, 16. 

"Let your light so shine before men that they may see 
your good works and glorify your Father which is in 
heaven." Math, v: 16. "Be ye therefore followers of 



484 CHRISTIANS. 

God, as dear children ; And walk in love. * * * But 
fornication, and all uncleaness, or covetousness, let it 
not be once named among you, as becometh saints ; 
neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, * * * 
walk circumspectly, * * * Redeeming the time, be- 
cause the days are evil. * * * And be not drunk 
with wine, wherein is excess ; but be filled with the spirit ; 
speaking to yourselves in psalms, and hymns, and 
spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your 
heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things 
unto God and the Father, in the name of our Lord 
Jesus Christ: Submitting yourselves one to another in 
the fear of the Lord." Eph. v. "Whether therefore ye 
eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of 
God." I Cor. x: 3 i. 

9. Our attitude in relation to his coming. 

"Ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and 
true God, and to wait for His Son from heaven." I Thes. 
i : 9, 10. 

"Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burn- 
ing." Luke xii : 35. 

"Therefore be ye also ready : for in such an hour as ye 
think not, the Son of man cometh." Math, xxvii : 44. 



ONENESS OF CHRIST AND HIS 
PEOPLE. 



Oneness of Wist ana Pis People. 



i. The Scriptures declare that Christ and his people 
are one. "For both he that sanctifieth, and they who 
are sanctified, are all of one." Heb. ii: n. "He that 
is joined unto the Lord is one spirit." I Cor. vi: 17. 
"Ye were called unto the fellowship (partnership) of his 
Son Jesus Christ our Lord." I Cor. i : 9. "As he is, 
so are we in this world." I John iv: 17. "And we are 
in him." I John v: 20. 

2. This oneness has existed from all eternity. "He 
hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the 
world." Eph. i: 4. "The mystery which from the be- 
ginning hath been hid in God." Eph. iii: 9. 

3. We were given to Christ that we might be one 
with him. "The men which thou gavest me out of the 
world, thine they were, and thou gavest them me." John 
xvii: 6. "Behold, I and the children which God hath 
given me." Heb. ii : 13. 

4. The Son of God came down and took our nature 
in order to be one with us. "Forasmuch then as the 
children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself 
likewise took part of the same." Heb. ii: 14. 

5. He became one with us in our sins — that is, he 
took our sins and confessed them as his own. "Mine 
iniquities have taken hold upon me. They are more 
than the hairs of mine head." Ps. xl: 12. "He hath borne 
our griefs and carried our sorrows." Isa. liii : 4. "Him- 
self took our infirmities and bare our sicknesses." Matt, 
viii : 17. 

6. He manifested this oneness on the cross. "Our 
old man is (was) crucified with him." Rom. vi: 6. 

487 



488 THE ONENESS OF CHRIST. 

7. We are one with him in death and burial. "There- 
fore we are buried with him by baptism into death." 
Rom. vi : 4. "We have been planted together in the 
likeness of his death." Rom. vi : 5. 

8. We were made one with him in life, or made alive 
together. "God * * * when we were dead in sin hath 
quickened us (made us alive) together with Christ." 
Eph. ii: 4, 5. 

9. One with him in resurrection. "And hath raised 
us up together and made us to sit together in heavenly 
places in Christ Jesus." Eph. ii: 6. 

10. We are one with him in his acceptance before 
God. "He hath made us accepted in the Beloved." 
Eph. i: 6. 

11. We are now one with him in God. "Your life 
is hid with Christ in God." Col. iii : 3. "And ye are 
complete in him." Col. ii: 10. 

12. We shall be one with him in the appearing and 
glory, "When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then 
shall ye also appear with him in glory." Col. iii: 4. 

13. We shall be one with him in his reign. "We shall 
also reign with him." II Tim. ii : 12. 

14. God with him has given us all things. "He that 
spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us 
all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all 
things?" Rom. viii: 32. 

15. Finally, we shall be like him. "We shall be like 
him, for we shall see him as he is." I John iii: 2. 



MAN'S RUIN— GOD'S REMEDY. 



man's Ruin God's Remedy, 



I. Man is a sinner by transgression. Rom. iii: 1018. 
Isa. lxiv: 6. 

II. By nature. Rom. viii: 7. Rom. vii: 18. Rom. 
v: 12. 

III. He is spiritually dead. Eph. ii: I. I Cor. ii: 14. 

IV. There is no difference as to guilt. Rom. iii: 22, 
23. God requires perfect holiness. Are you short in one 
requirement, you are guilty of sin. Are you short in two 
requirements, you are guilty of sin. The moralist who 
just fails to be holy, is guilty of sin. The out-breaking 
transgressor is guilty of sin. There is, then, no differ- 
ence on the count of sin ; both are guilty. 

V. God cannot clear the guilty. Ex. xxxiv : 7. Numb, 
xiv : 18. Ezk. xviii : 4. 

VI. God sent his son Jesus Christ into the world to 
take the sinner's place, and suffer his doom. Rom. viii: 
3. Gal. iv: 4, 5. Gal. iii: 13, I Pet. ii: 24. I Pet. 
iii: 18. 

VII. The question of sin is now settled. John xix : 30. 
Heb. ix: 26. 

VIII. Grace finds a righteous channel in the death of 
Christ. Rom. iii : 24. 

IX. Jesus Christ is now presented as a Saviour to 
sinners. Acts v: 31. Acts xiii: 38. 

X. Salvation is received by receiving Jesus Christ 
through faith. John i: 12. John iii: 16, 18, 36. John 
v: 24. John vi : 47. Rom. x: 9. I John v: 1. I John 
v: 13. 

The philosophy of this faith. 

491 



492 MAN'S RUIN. 

1. It claims Jesus as substitute, and Saviour. 

2. It takes God at his word. 

"Believe on Him, who died for thee, 

And sure as He has died, 
Thy debt is paid, thy soul is free, 
And thou art justified.'' 



LAW AND GOSPEL. 



£aw and Gospel. 



The law and the gospel do not go in company. They 
are by nature as far apart as life and death. The one 
is the ministry of death, the other of life. 

The law is the whip-lash of judgment. 

The gospel is the silver bell ringing the anthem of 
love. The law brings a work to do. The gospel brings 
a word to believe. 

The law is the reflex of one side of God's nature ; 
the reflex of his terrible holiness, his exact justice. It 
reveals what man is not. He is not holy. He is not 
righteous. He is not accepted before God. It reveals 
what man is. He is a sinner, a hopeless sinner, a hope- 
lessly lost sinner. 

The gospel is the good news that the law has been 
honored, the claims met, and God ; satisfied: the good 
news that Jesus honored the law in life, met the penalty 
in death, and at God's right hand, a risen man, is wit- 
ness of God's eternal satisfaction. The gospel brings 
the good news that there is forgiveness with God, and 
that life eternal is his gift. It brings a new life, in which 
and by which, we may live above the law, so binding 
us to the heart of God in vital union with his Son, that 
we need no thunder of judgment to keep us right, but 
filling us so full of Christ, if we will it, that we may love 
one another as brethren and neighbors In the Lord, even, 
as we love ourselves, while we love the God, in Jesus 
the Christ, with all the mind and strength. 

The truest way to bring men under law to God, so 
that his will shall be righteously obeyed, is to preach the 
gospel, the good news of his love, and then shall it be- 
come true, that "we love him because he first loved us." 



THE ROD AND THE ROCK. 



IH Rod and tbe Rock. 



Numbers xx. 



There are two scenes in which the rod and the rock 
are brought before us. .The one, at Rephidim, in the 
wilderness of Sin. The other, at Kadesh, in the desert 
of Zin. The account of the first is given in Ex. xvii : 
4-6. The people thirsted for water and murmured 
against Moses, "and Moses cried unto the Lord, saying, 
what shall I do unto this people, they be almost ready 
to stone me? And the Lord said unto Moses, go on 
before the people, and take with thee of the elders of 
Israel; and thy rod, wherewith thou smotest the river, 
take in thine hand, and go. Behold, I will stand before 
thee there upon the rock, in Horeb ; and thou shalt 
smite the rock, and there shall come water out of it, that 
the people may drink. And Moses did so in the sight of 
the elders of Israel." The rock typifies Christ, "for 
they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them, 
and that rock was Christ." I Cor. x: 4. Smiting the 
rock is smiting Christ; "we did esteem him stricken, 
smitten of God." Isa. liii : 4. The rod was the instru- 
ment used in smiting, and as the smiting sets forth 
judgment, therefore the rod of Moses is the rod of 
judgment. That this is the character of the rod may 
be seen from other scripture. In Ex. vii : 14 — 17, he 
uses the rod to smite the river with blood. In Ex. ix: 
23, he uses it to bring down the judgment of fire and 
hail. Now the fact that God commands Moses to take 
this rod and use it upon the rock in his presence, sets 
forth clearly that God would shew unto the people the 
way of salvation through the judgment of the crossi. 

499 



500 ROD AND ROCK. 

But what God does is done forever. What, then, are 
we to understand by the apparent repetition of the scene, 
and the second smiting of the rock ; smiting too with 
this very rod of judgment? Either we are to under- 
stand that Christ is crucified a second time, or else Moses 
was disobedient. Moses zvas disobedient. The Lord 
did not tell him to smite the rock at all, but speak to it. 
"And the Lord said unto Moses, take the rod and gather 
thou the assembly together, thou and Aaron, thy brother, 
and speak ye unto the rock before their eyes, and it shall 
give forth his water." Num. xx : 8. It will be noticed 
that Aaron is introduced into this scene, and not in the 
first. Aaron sets forth priest-hood, and priest-hood is 
intercessory, but intercession is based, only, on sacrifice. 
If then the first smiting of the rock sets forth the one 
sacrifice of Christ, once for all, the second scene in 
which Moses with Aaron is commanded to speak to or 
supplicate the rock, sets forth the priestly relation of 
Christ on the basis of that sacrifice to his people. 
Having been crucified, he dies no more. He now liveth 
at the right hand of God to make intercession for his 
people and unfold the blessings they need. Passing 
through the wilderness we contract defilement by the 
way. How shall it be removed? By speaking to him, 
telling it all out before him, and he will cleanse us from 
all unrighteousness. We want blessings and grace. 
What shall Ave do? Speak to him, and the streams of 
mercy will flow forth as from an endless fountain. 



THE ROD THAT BUDDED. 



Cbe Rod tbat Budded. 



In Numbers xvi. we get an account of Koran's con- 
spiracy against the priest-hood, the test to which Moses 
invited them, and the consuming wrath of God, which 
destroyed them and swallowed up the rebels, Dathan 
and Abiram. We learn, also, in Numbers xvii. that, 
in order to set an open seal of his favor upon the priest- 
hood of Aaron, God required each tribe to bring a stick 
with the name of their family upon it, and lay them up 
before the Lord in his sanctuary, saying unto them that 
the rod which blossomed and budded and brought forth 
almonds, should be the rod of him whom he recognized 
as Priest. On the morrow it was found that Aaron's 
rod had so blossomed and budded and brought forth 
almonds. Now, this testified not only of the divine 
ordination upon the house of Aaron, but it sets forth 
precious truth concerning the priest-hood of Christ. 
The budding of the rod is the coming forth of life out of 
death ; for it was a dead or, at least, rootless stick. So, 
the life which is given of God, is made manifest out of 
death. Out of his dying, came forth the resurrection. 

Again, as this rod set forth the priest-hood and took 
place after or on the other side of death, so we learn that 
the priest-hood of Christ is on the other side of the grave. 
Not on the earth. "For if he were on earth, he should 
not be a Priest." Heb. viii : 4. "For it is evident that 
our Lord sprang out of Judah, of which tribe Moses 
spake nothing concerning priest-hood." Heb. vii : 14. 
We learn that the Priest-hood of Christ is heavenly, 
so, also, is that of his Church ; that, therefore, there is 



503 



504 ROD THAT BUDDBD. 

no warrant for earthly priest-hood in the Church of 
God; that the priest-hood on earth belongs now, as it 
did then, to the family of Aaron, of the tribe of Levi. 
That, in short, priest-hood on earth is recognized only 
in Israel; and that as he is not now dealing with Israel 
and will not do so till the Church is received into glory ; 
therefore, any priest-hood on earth, to-day, is unscrip- 
tural; and that, therefore, we are to consider him who is 
the "Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ 
Jesus." Heb. iii; I, 






OUTLINES OF PROPHESY. 



Outlines of Prophesy. 



i. Jesus Christ is coming to this world again. 

"I will come again." John xiv : 3. "And when he 
had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken 
up; and a cloud received him out of their sight: and 
while they looked steadfastly toward heaven, as he went 
up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; 
which also said, ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing 
up into heaven? This same Jesus, which is taken up 
from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye 
have seen him go into heaven." Acts i: 9 — 11. I Cor. i: 
7. I Cor. xi: 26. I Cor. xvi: 22. Phil, iii : 20, 21. 
Phil, iv: 5. Col. iii: 4. I Thess. i: 9, 10. I Thess. ii : 
19. I Thess. iii: 12, 13. I Thess. iv : 15 — 18. I Thess. 
v: 23. II Thess. i: 7 — 10. II Thess. ii: 1 — 8. II Thess. 
iii: 5. II Tim. iv: 1. Titus ii : 13. Heb. ix: 28. Heb. 
x : 37. James v : 7, 8, 9. I Peter i : 7. I Peter v : 4. 
II Peter i: 16. II Peter iii: 4. I John ii : 28. I John 
iii : 2. II John vii. Jude xiv. Rev. i : 7. Rev. ii : 
25. Rev. iii: 11 — 20. Rev. 4th Chapter. Rev. xix: 11 — 
21. Rev. xxii: 7, 12. 17 — 20. Job xix: 25 — 27. Isa. 
xxvi : 21. Isa. xl : 10. Isa. lxii : 11. Jer. xxiii : 5, 6. 
Dan. \ii: 13. Hosea v: 15. Joel iii: 9 — 11. Hag. ii: 
7. Zech. xiv : 1 — 5. Mai. iii : 1 — 5. 

2. His coming will be unexpected. 

"For in such an hour as ye think not, the son of man 
cometh." Matt, xxiv : 44. Mark xiii : 34—37. 

3. He will come as a bridegroom for his bride. 
"And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the 

bridegroom cometh." Matt, xxv : 6. 



507 



508 OUTLINES OF PROPHESY. 

4. He will raise the dead, and change the living 
saints, and gather them to himself in the air. 

"For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven 
with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with 
the trump of God : and the dead in Christ shall rise first : 
Then we which are alive and remain, shall be caught 
up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in 
the air; and so shall we ever be with the Lord." I 
Thess. iv: 16, 17. 

5. He will reward his people in the air. 

"We (that is, christians) must all appear before the 
judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive 
the things done in his body, according to that he hath 
done, whether it be good or bad." II Cor. v : 10. 
"Every man's (every christian man's) work shall be 
made manifest; for the day shall declare it, because it 
shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every 
man's work of what sort it is. If any man's (any 
christian man's) work abide which he hath built there- 
upon, he shall receive a reward. If any man's work 
shall be burned, he shall suffer loss : but he himself shall 
be saved; yet so as by fire." I Cor. iii : 13 — 15. 

6. The world will know nothing of this stage of 
Christ's coming till after the departure of the church. 
"For yourselves know perfectly, that the day of the 
Lord so cometh as a thief in the night." I Thess. v: 
2. Luke xvii : 26 — 30. 

7. The first resurrection takes place at the coming of 
Christ for his Church. 

"The Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a 
shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the 
trump of God : and the dead in Christ shall rise first." 
I Thess. iv: 16. "The rest of the dead lived not 



OUTLINES OF PROPHESY. 509 

AGAIN UNTIL THE THOUSAND YEARS WERE FINISHED. 

This is the first resurrection." Rev. xx. 5. 

8. With the departure of the church, the hindrance to 
Antichrist will be removed. 

"For the mystery of iniquity doth already work : only 
he who now letteth (hindereth) will let, until he be 
taken out of the way. And then shall that Wicked 
be revealed." II Thess. ii : 7, 8. 

The hinderance to Antichrist is the Holy Ghost. As 
a .restraining power he will be taken away with the 
church. 

9. Before Antichrist is revealed and just after the 
church departs, there will be a falling away, or apostasy. 

Let no man deceive you by any means : for that day 
(the thousand years, the millennium) shall not come, 
except there come a falling away first, and that man of 
sin be revealed, the son of perdition." II Thess. ii : 3. 
That is to say, as the man of sin cannot be revealed till 
there is first a falling away, and as there cannot be an 
absolute lapse until the withdrawal of the Holy Ghost 
as a restraining power, and this can take place only 
with the departure of the church, the order of events 
is clearly defined : that is, the church is translated, 
iniquity comes to a head and Antichrist is revealed. 

10. During this period of apostasy, there are wars 
and commotions, as a result of which, the old Roman 
Empire emerges into political, governmental, and ge- 
ographical unity once more, as in the days of the 
Caesars. A Prince arises to rule, and brings Israel into 
prominence in their own land, making a covenant with 
them for seven years. 

"And he shall confirm the (a) covenant with many 
for one week." Dan. ix : 27. 



510 OUTLINES OF PROPHESY. 

"Many" refers to Israel. Week is heptade, and sig- 
nifies a period of seven, as decade signifies ten, and 
here stands for seven years. 

Who is the Prince? Verse 26 says, "The people of 
the Prince that shall come" — shewing that this Prince 
who is to come is to arise out of a certain people. Who 
are the people? The 26th verse indicates the people 
who destroyed Jerusalem. The people who destroyed 
Jerusalem were Romans : the people of this Prince, 
then, are Romans : and this Prince shall arise to 
be ruler over that nation, and make a league for seven 
years with many in Israel ; for the many are Daniel's 
people, the Jews. The Romans did not make a league 
with the Jews after the destruction of Jerusalem. The 
Romans are not in existence now as a nation. The Jews 
are not in their own land, hence this prophecy of 
Daniel goes into the future; and as God's dealings can- 
not take place with Israel until the church is corporately 
complete, or taken out of the world, therefore this 
Prince and his people must arise after the departure 
of the church, and as Antichrist, the man of sin, has 
just been shewn to arise after the rapture of the church, 
we identify this Prince of the Romans with him. Be- 
sides, this prince is readily identified with che little horn 
of Daniel's vision, and the little horn is in all its char- 
acteristics the same as the wicked of Paul, the man of 
sin. 

11. In the midst of the week or seven years, Satan 
is cast out of Heaven to the earth. 

"The Devil which deceiveth the whole world was 
cast out (of heaven) into the earth. Woe to the inhab- 
iters of the earth and of the sea! for the Devil is come 
down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth 
that he hath but a short time." Rev. xii : 7-12. 



OUTLINES OF PROPHESY. 511 

12. The Roman Prince is now energized by Satan, 
and revealed as the man of sin, or Antichrist. "And 
I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise 
up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and 
upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name 
of blasphemy. And the dragon (the Devil) gave him 
his power, and his seat, and great authority. And there 
was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and 
blasphemies : and power was given unto him to con- 
tinue forty and two months. (Three years and a half, 
shewing this casting out of Satan as the energizing 
power, takes place in the midst of the seven years). And 
he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to 
blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and (even) them 
that dwell, (are dwelling), in heaven." (The taber- 
nacle is the church and thus the church is seen to be 
dwelling in heaven while Antichrist rages : proving that 
the church is taken out of the world before this point 
is reached). Rev. xiii : 1 — 6. 

"That man of sin, the son of perdition, who opposeth 
and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that 
is worshipped : so that he, as God, sitteth in the temple 
of God, shewing himself that he is God." II Thess. 

13. He persecutes those on the earth called the 
"saints," those who turn unto the Lord after the church 
has been taken hence. 

"And it was given unto him to make war with the 
saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him 
over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations." Rev. 
xiii : 7. 

14. In the midst of the seven years, he breaks his 
covenant with Israel, and sets up his image in Jerusalem. 



512 OUTLINES OF PROPHESY. 

"In the midst of the week (heptade, the seven years) 
he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease 
(Israel will, at the first return to their own land, go back, 
in a measure, to the mosaic ritual), and for the over- 
spreading of abominations, he shall make it desolate 
(or as the margin reads, "Upon the battlements, shall 
be the idols of the desolator." (the image spoken of in the 
13th chapter of Revelation). Dan. ix: 27. 

This corresponds with the testimony of Paul in II 
Thess. ii : 3, 4, where the man of sin sitteth in the 
temple of God, that is, of course, at Jerusalem, demand- 
ing to be worshipped as God. 

15. At this sign, many who are loyal to Christ, flee 
away, as forewarned by the Lord. "When ye, there- 
fore, shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of 
by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place (whoso 
readeth, let him understand), then let them which be in 
Judea, flee into the mountains." Matt, xxiv: 15. 

16. At this time two witnesses will appear in Jerusa- 
lem, testifying of Jesus unto Israel. 

"And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and 
they shall prophesy a thousand, two hundred and three 
score days (that is three years and a half), clothed in 
sackcloth. These have power to shut Heaven, that it 
rain not in the days of their prophecy; (reminding us in 
this respect of Elijah's power) : and have power over 
waters to turn them to blood, and to smite the earth 
with all plagues (reminding us of Moses in Egypt), as 
often as they will." Rev. xi : 3, 6. 

In the transfiguration scene, Moses and Elijah appear 
on the mount with Jesus. Peter, who was an eye- 
witness, tells us in an epistle, that this scene represented 
the coming and Kingdom of Christ as in panorama. It 



OUTLINES OF PROPHESY. 513 

is evident, therefore, that when Christ comes to estab- 
lish the Kingdom in Israel, Moses and Elias will occupy 
pre-eminent positions; and as in this very chapter we 
have the prelude to the coming of Christ, and the 
triumph of the Kingdom, and these two witnesses pos- 
sess all the characteristics of Moses and Elias, and as 
Moses and Elias can have no imitators; and as the 
prophet Malachi declares absolutely that Elias will come 
before the great and notable day of the Lord, "Behold, 
I will send you Elijah (Elias) the prophet before the 
coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord," Mai. 
iv: 5, then these two witnesses are none other than 
Moses and Elias, and thus we understand why the Devil 
was not permitted to have the body of Moses to corrupt 
it with the corruption of death, as we read in Jude 9; 
was not permitted to have it, in order that he might 
appear in it again ; and thus, also, we understand why 
Elijah was translated without seeing death. 

17. Through the testimony of these witnesses, an elect 
remnant is brought out who refuse to worship the) 
beast, and instead, give glory to Christ, as the true God. 

"And the remnant * * * gave glory to the God 
of heaven." Rev. xi: 13. 

18. Antichrist, or the beast, puts the two witnesses 
to death; and God gives them resurrection. 

"And when they shall have finished their testimony, 
the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall 
make war against them, and shall overcome them, and 
kill them. And after three days and a half, the Spirit 
of life from God entered into them, and they stood 
upon their feet ; * * * and they heard a great voice 
from heaven, saying unto them, Come up hither. And 
they ascended up to heaven in a cloud." Rev. xi: 7-12. 



514 OUTLINES OF PROPHESY. 

19. Antichrist becomes enraged at the rebellion in 
Israel, and gathers an army and comes against Jerusalem 
to destroy it and the people. 

"For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to 
battle ; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, 
and half of the city shall go forth into captivity." Zech. 
xiv: 2. "And I saw the beast, and the kings of the 
earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war 
against him that sat on the horse" (Christ). Rev. 
xix: 19. 

20. At this moment the Lord will descend from 
heaven to the Mount of Olives in mighty power. 

"Then shall the Lord go forth, and fight against those 
nations, and his feet shall stand in that day upon the 
mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east." 
Zech. xiv: 3, 4. That this does not refer to the first 
coming of Christ must be clear. He did not go forth 
at that time to fight against the nations. When he 
went to the mount of Olives it was as one despised and 
rejected of men. He has not stood upon the mount of 
Olives and fought against the nations since the resur- 
rection. The great act is yet to take place. 

21. The saints, or, the church, will descend from 
heaven, whither they had been previously caught up, 
with Christ in great glory. 

"The Lord, my God, shall come and all the saints with 
thee" (him). Zech. xiv: 5. "When Christ, who is our 
life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him 
in glory." Col. iii: 4. Rev. xix: 11 — 15. 

22. He will cast the beast and the false prophet into 
the lake of fire. 

"And the beast was taken, and with him the false 
prophet that wrought miracles before him. These both 



OUTLINES OF PROPHESY. 515 

were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brim- 
stone." Rev. xix: 20. 

23. Satan will be bound a thousand years. 

"And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having 
the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his 
hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, 
which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand 
years, and cast him into the bottomless pit." Rev. 
xx : 1—3. 

24. The kingdom of Christ will now be established for 
a thousand years. 

"And they (those who sat on thrones, the Church 
who come with Christ, and the martyrs who had suf- 
fered after the departure of the church), lived and 
reigned with Christ a thousand years." Rev. xx: 4. 
"And they sung a new song, saying, * * * me 
shall reign on the earth." Rev. v: 9, 10. 

25. At the close of the thousand years, Satan will 
be loosed to deceive the nations, and organizing a re- 
bellion, shall have his host destroyed by fire from heaven, 
and be cast, himself, into the lake of fire. 



OF WHOM I AM CHIEF. 



Of UIDom T am gtoU 



In I Tim. i: 15, we read that "Christ Jesus came into 
the world to save sinners of whom I am chief." 

So Paul wrote, and for centuries, people have been 
accustomed to look upon the Apostle of the Gentiles as 
the head centre of earthly sin, as an example of pro- 
found and total depravity. Good inquiry room workers 
have not failed to seize the strategic value of the utter- 
ance in their dealings with the outcast, and have not 
omitted to comfort the black sheep and the unpromis- 
ing with the thought, that if the chief of sinners could 
be saved, how readily hopeful was their case. 

But Paul has suffered too long already under a mis- 
apprehension ; as the result of a failure to read Paul in 
all the full Pauline light. It is only necessary to turn 
over to the letter which he wrote to the Philippians to 
see that the popular view of him as a pre-eminent sinner, 
an accentuatedly bad man, is not justified, and is, even, 
contradicted in his own full testimony. Listen to this: 
"circumcised the eighth day of the stock of Israel, of 
the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews, as 
touching the law, a Pharisee * * * " Touching 
the righteousness which is in the law blameless. Phil, 
iii: 5 — 6. Read his defense in Acts xxiv: 14. "So 
worship I the God of my Fathers, believing all things 
which are written in the law and in the Prophets. Read 
again in Acts xxvi: 4 — 6. "My manner of life from 
my youth, which was at the first among mine own 
nation at Jerusalem, know all the Jews ; which knew me 
from the beginning, if they would testify, that after the 
most straitest sect of our religion, I lived a Pharisee." 

519 



520 OF WHOM I AM CHIEF. 

This is Paul's biography. There is no thought 
here — in the general acceptance of the term — of such 
a thing as the chief of sinners ; on the contrary, here is 
a man absolutely religious — even his persecution of the 
church was done in the name of religion and God, and 
as he believed, for the upbuilding of the cause of truth 
and righteousness : living a life so absolutely blameless, 
so thoroughly without the fear of reproach as to conduct, 
as to personal morality, that he challenges those who 
have known him from childhood up, to come forward 
and testify against him if they can. 

What then are we to understand by the word chief, 
in connection with this thought of sinners saved by 
grace? The rendering of the word chief by the actual 
Greek word "first" would throw light at once : "of whom 
I am the first." The following verse broadens the light ; 
here we have the same word rendered properly: "How- 
beit for this cause I obtained mercy," because what he 
did against the church, he did ignorantly and in unbelief, 
"that in me first Jesus Christ might show forth all long 
suffering, for a pattern of them which should hereafter 
believe on him to life everlasting." The word pattern 
completes the idea of chief. That is to say : Paul declares 
himself to be the first one of sinners brought to the 
knowledge of Christ, and a pattern of the long suffering 
and grace of God in his case. Evidently, Paul was not 
the first sinner to be turned to the Lord, he must there- 
fore stand as the first one in a class of sinners, and not 
only as a pattern of the long suffering and grace of 
God, but as a pattern of the way in which that grace was 
manifested in the bringing of him to serve the Lord. 
If we turn to his first epistle to the Corinthians we will 
find him confirming this suggestion and enunciating it. 



OF WHOM I AM CHIEF. 521 

He says : "Last of all, he was seen of me also, as one 
born out of due time." I Cor. xv : 8. One born ahead 
of the time. 

Let us enquire how Paul saw the Lord Jesus and we 
shall have the whole truth. We know how he saw him. 
He saw him appearing in glory above the Damascus 
gate, and smitten to earth with that glory, he cried out, 
and owned Jesus of Nazareth as the Messiah, and the 
Lord God of Israel. The truth is, Paul was never 
converted by the preaching of the Gospel, but by the 
appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ; and as the nation 
of Israel is never to be converted by the preaching of 
the Gospel, but by the appearing of God in glory to the 
Mount of Olives, where they shall look upon him whom 
they have pierced, it is evident that Paul as a Hebrew 
of the Hebrews, standing forth as the incarnate blindness 
bigotry and persecution of that people against the Son 
of God, is thrown forward ahead of Israel's time dis- 
pensationally ; and as one born out of due time — that is 
out of Israel's time — becomes the protos, the first one 
of Israel converted by the appearing of Christ in glory; 
and is thus the witness, of the long suffering and grace 
of God towards that people, and the pattern, the sam- 
ple of the way, in which, at the last, they shall be brought 
to know and own him ; like Thomas, believing only when 
they shall see him, and thrust in their hands into the 
print of the nails ; believing in him and owning him 
only, as Paul did, when he shall flash down out of Heaven 
earthward, in the glory of his appearing. 



EARTHLY THINGS. 



eartbly Dings. 



"If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, 
how shall ye believe if I tell you of heavenly things?" 

The Kingdom of God and the doctrine of the second 
birth do not seem, on the surface at least, like earthly 
things; yet, since these are the things of which Jesus 
had been speaking to Nicodemus, the Kingdom of God 
and the doctrine of the second birth, must be classed 
among the earthly things. Our Lord's declaration that 
Nicodemus, as a teacher, ought to have known and un- 
derstood them as such, makes it evident that the ex- 
planation and justification for so startling an appella- 
tion, are to be found in the very scriptures which the 
learned Rabbi professed to teach. An examination of 
these scriptures will show that this is the truth. 

One of the scriptures with which Nicodemus ought to 
have been exceedingly familiar was that of the prophet 
Ezekiel. Read carefully Ezekiel xxxvii : 21-28. "Thus 
saith the Lord God, Behold I will take the children of 
Israel from among the heathen, whither they be gone, 
and will gather them on every side, and bring them into 
their own land; and I will make them one nation in the 
land upon the mountains of Israel; and one king shall 
be king to them all; and they shall be no more two 
nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms 
any more at all; neither shall they defile themselves any 
more. * * * David my servant shall be king over 
them ; * * * and they shall dwell therein forever; 
and my servant David shall be their prince forever. My 
tabernacle shall be with them; yea, I will be their God, 
and they shall be my people." 



525 



526 EARTHLY THINGS. 

Note here: — 

i. The children of Israel are to be brought back into 
their own land. 

2. The two kingdoms, Judah and Israel, are to be 
united in one indissoluble kingdom in the land. 

3. One king is to reign over them all. 

4. This king is "David my servant." The word David 
would be better rendered, "The Beloved," hence, "The 
Beloved my servant." This king is none other than our 
Lord Jesus Christ. 

That Christ is to be king on the throne of David is 
evident by the statement of the Apostle Peter on the 
day of Pentecost. Speaking of David in the Psalms, the 
apostle says, God swore unto him with an oath that "of 
the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would 
raise up Christ to sit on his throne." Acts ii : 30. The 
prophet Isaiah foretold it; "unto us," (that is unto Is- 
rael,) "a child is born, unto us a son is given * * * and 
his name shall be called, the Mighty God * * * upon the 
throne of David, and upon his kingdom." Isaiah ix: 6, 
7. When he was born, he was called the "King of the 
Jews;" when he rode into Jerusalem, he was saluted as 
the "King of Israel," "the Son of David;" above his cross 
was written, "This is the King of the Jews." 

5. God will be, in a special and covenant way, in the 
person of His Son, the God of this Kingdom. 

This is the kingdom of God. 

It is a kingdom in Israel set up on the earth. 

It is an "earthly thing," not because it is of the earth, 
but because it is displayed in the sphere of the earth. 

Now turn to Ezekiel xxxvi: 26, 2.J. "A new heart 
also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within 
you; and I will take away the stony heart out of your 



EARTHLY THINGS. 527 

flesh., and I will give you a heart of flesh." This is re- 
generation pure and simple. 

When this regeneration is to be accomplished is set 
forth in verse 24. "I will take you from among the 
heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and will 
bring you into your own land." Evidently the refer- 
ence is to the setting up of the unfailing kingdom in 
Israel, and when the King shall have come. That re- 
generation opens the door to literal earthly blessings, 
may be seen by reading verses 28-30: 33-38. "Ye shall 
dwell in the land, * * * I will call for the corn, and 
will increase it * * * and I will multiply the fruit of 
the tree, and the increase of the field * * * the deso- 
late land shall be tilled * * * so shall the waste cities 
be filled with flocks of men; and they shall know that 
I am the Lord." 

Thus regeneration is one of the earthly things, not 
because it is of the earth, but because it is one of the 
characteristics in the Kingdom of God in Israel, as seen 
in its display in the sphere of earth. 

In fulfilment of covenant promise, the Son of God 
came as the Beloved of the Father, as the king over 
Israel. Nicodemus, one of the rulers in the Sanhedrin, 
one who ought to have known all about regeneration, 
seeks an interview. He never rises to the idea that this 
Jesus is the Holy one of Israel, his King. He sees him 
only as a teacher sent from God. The Lord comes down 
to his level. He takes the part of a teacher, he says to 
him: "You come to learn truth, you want doctrine; very 
well, I say to you that the fundamental thing to know is 
regeneration — without a second birth, no man can enter, 
no man can even see the coming kingdom in Israel. 
Nicodemus is all in darkness. Then Jesus seeks to re- 



528 EARTHLY THINGS. 

mind him of the Prophet Ezekiel, he says, "Marvel not 
that I said unto thee, ye must be born again." He tells 
him that this new birth must be of the spirit, and in say- 
ing so, quotes the very thought and, almost, the very 
words of Ezekiel; but no ray of light flashes through the 
darkened mind of this teacher in Israel. His manifest 
ignorance here is the ground of our Lord's seemingly 
singular rebuke, "Art thou a master in Israel, and know- 
est not these things." 
He does not understand these "earthly things." 
How could he understand "heavenly things?" 
By heavenly things our Lord meant the Church. 
The Church is a body of persons called out of all na- 
tions to faith in a crucified and risen Christ, exalted to 
be the second Adam, and the new head, in whom all 
things in heaven and earth are to be united. Each one 
of this body is born from above, receives new life from 
the risen man, is linked up with him in vital union for- 
ever, and forever is indwelt by his Spirit. This body 
of persons is not called to dwell on earth, as Israel, but 
to walk through it as pilgrims and strangers, testifying 
against it. In the new era which will dawn at the com- 
ing of Christ, they will dwell with him in heaven, and 
reign with him in associated glory over the kingdom of 
God in Israel, the bride, the queen consort of the king; 
as it is written: "Thou hast made us kings and priests 
and we shall reign on (over) the earth." Rev. v: 10; 
as again it is written in Daniel vii: 27: "And the king- 
dom and dominion * * * under the whole heaven, 
shall be given to the people of the saints of the most 
High (to the holy ones in the high places, to the Church 
in the heavenly places) whose kingdom is an everlasting 
kingdom." 



EARTHLY l^HINGS. 529 

These are the heavenly things, not because they are 
more divine or spiritual than the earthly things, but be- 
cause heaven, and not earth, is the sphere in which the 
Church is to be displayed to the glory of God's grace. 

This distinction between the heavenly and the earthly 
things is made constantly in scripture in Ephesians iii : 
15, the apostle speaks of "the family in heaven and the 
family in earth," that is to say, of the Church and Israel; 
the one above, the other below, in the final order of the 
kingdom. 

Our Lord was absolutely precise in the use of his 
terms. He told the exact truth about Nicodemus; if 
the latter did not comprehend the Master when he spoke 
of earthly things, how much less could he have under- 
stood him if he had spoken of heavenly things ? 

This interview not only shows the wisdom of the Lord, 
it clearly manifests the inexcusable blindness of Israel, 
and justifies God in bringing in the new dispensation 
of the Church ; this hour of the heavenly calling and 
measureless grace, not to Jews only, but also to the 
Gentiles ; while, at the same time, it teaches us the neces- 
sity of rightly dividing the word and the times of God, 
and seeing to it that we do not confound the earthly and 
the heavenly things. 



MOSES. 



moses. 



Moses the man of God. 

— Deut. xxx Hi : i. 



The life of Moses presents a series of striking an- 
titheses. 

He was the child of a slave, and the son of a queen. 
He was born in a hut, and lived in a palace. He in- 
herited poverty, and enjoyed unlimited wealth. He 
was the leader of armies, and the keeper of flocks. He 
was the mightiest of warriors, and the meekest of men. 
He was educated in the court, and dwelt in the desert. 
He had the wisdom of Egypt, and the faith of a child. 
He was fitted for the city, and wandered in the wilder- 
ness. He was tempted with the pleasures of sin, and 
endured the hardships of virtue. He was backward in 
speech, and talked with God. He had the rod of a 
shepherd, and the power of the Infinite. He was a 
fugitive from Pharaoh, and an ambassador from Heaven. 
He was the giver of the Law, and the forerunner of 
Grace. He died alone on Mount Moab, and appeared 
with Christ in Judea. No man assisted at his funeral, 
yet God buried him. The fire has gone out of Mount 
Sinai, but the lightning is still in his Law. His lips are 
silent, but his voice yet speaks. 

The history of such, a life is well worth attention, and 
the principles which underlie its antitheses, the closest 
study. 

He was born in Egypt, the most mysterious land of 
Antiquity. 

He was born in an era when human science, and 
human wisdom, had made some of their mightiest ad- 

533 



534 MOSES. 

varices. He was born at a time when the keenest per- 
secution was directed against his race. Providence pre- 
sided at his birth, a Providence which not only caused 
him to be hidden from the hands of those who would 
have destroyed him, but caused him to fall into the only 
hands which could have safely rescued him. A Provi- 
dence which took him out of the cabin of the slave, 
where he could never have been aught but a slave, and 
placed him where alone in all the wide world he could 
be best fitted and trained to be just the reverse of a 
slave, a leader and manager of men. 

He had forty years in which to cultivate his human 
vanity, amid the splendors of mortal power. He had 
forty years in which to reflect upon the folly of human 
vanity, amid the solitudes of the desert. And he had 
forty years in which to walk in the wilderness with God, 
and know the joy of that infinite communion. 

He goes back from the silence of the solitude, to the 
tumult of the town, and in the name of the ever-abiding 
Jehovah confronts Pharaoh, and demands the freedom 
of his people. 

He takes these people, three millions in number, men, 
women and children, and leads them forth from the land 
which had been occupied by them and their ancestors 
four hundred years. 

He conducts them into the wilderness and organizes 
an army of more than half a million fighting men. 

Having given them freedom, he endows them with a 
religion, a religion which is absolutely new and original; 
a religion whose laws in relation to God and man touch 
the profoundest elements of life, both natural and spir- 
itual. 

He maintains this multitude in a savage land, without 
cities, without commerce, without manufactures, with- 



MOSES. 535 

out agriculture, for forty years. He endures their mur- 
murings, quenches their rebellion, meets their necessi- 
ties, defeats their enemies, solidifies their character, ac- 
centuates their nationality, and waits till the old genera- 
tion, with their limitations of birth, previous habits and 
traditions are all dead, and the new generation have be- 
come entirely alienated from and grow up without obli- 
gation to the past; and then, under a new leader trained 
under his own hand, filled with his spirit, and moulded 
by his words, he sends them a compact, concrete nation, 
into a new land, to form an empire whose latest page in 
history has not yet been written; and then when his work 
is done, goes silently, thoughtfully and alone into the 
solemn stillness of the mountain heights; and there, un- 
seen by mortal eye, unheard by mortal ken, passes out 
of the land of the heart-ache and the dying into the 
blessedness of the years of God. 

The history is unique, the events have in them the 
echo of age on ages telling. His figure stands out 
strong and simple against the passing eras ; and lo, there 
is none like unto him amid the merely natural sons of 
men. 

In endeavoring to study more closely and more anal- 
ytically his marvellous character, we are forced to con- 
sider him in the many and varied roles he filled. 

He was a scholar. He was learned in all the wisdom 
of the Egyptians. There was a time not far distant 
when that little phrase did not mean so much, but to- 
day when the pick and the spade of the Egyptologist are 
turning up the soil of the land 1 of Mizraim, and the eye 
looks with wonder on temple and tomb, with all the evi- 
dences of a Science and Civilization in some respects 
equal to, if not superior to our own, the phrase gathers 



536 MOSES. 

immense force; and we repeat, with added emphasis, 
the words of the martyr Stephen, "Moses was learned 
in all the wisdom of the Egyptians." 

He knew the esoteric as well as the exoteric wisdom 
of the Egyptians. He knew all that the common peo- 
ple knew, and he knew what alone the priests of the 
temple knew. He understood cosmogony, he was 
learned in astronomy, he was an adept in geology, he 
knew medicine, he taught the circulation of the blood, 
and comprehended the life of the soul. 

He had seen the wonders of Bubastis, knew the riddle 
of the Sphynx, and possessed the secret of that mighty 
Pyramid, that Pillar of the Lord, whose story shall yet 
be told to a startled world. 

He was a patriot, a lover of his people, a lover of his 
nation. 

He saw them bend their backs beneath the task- 
masters' burdens, he heard the cry of the oppressed, 
and his soul stirred within him; and when the moment 
came to express his sympathy and lend his aid, he did 
not hesitate at any cost to himself, but struck the blow 
which made one slave driver less, and one freeman more. 

Surrounded by the influence of forty years of mag- 
nificence, of lawless luxury and unlimited power with 
every possibility of self-pleasing at his hand, and before 
him the alternatives of ignominy and shame, it was a 
sublime patriotism, an unspeakable devotion which led 
him at last to exchange the mosaics of the palace for 
the sands of the desert, the fountains of wine for the 
brooks by the way, the sceptre of a king for the crook 
of a herdsman. 

He was a great organizer of men and forces. Con- 
sider what a task it was to take a people which stood at 



MOSES. 537 

the end of four hundred years of the most abject slavery 
and denationalization; to take this vast multitude 
amounting to millions, and so organize them that there 
should be unity of feeling, unity of movement, and the 
sense of obedience, compatible with liberty and self- 
respect. There must have been something profoundly 
majestic and royal in the bearing as well as the life of 
such a man. 

He was a great general. The Egyptians had been 
driven back by the Red Sea, but they could easily have 
pursued and overtaken the Israelites by another route, 
the short and direct route to the Promised Land; but 
this was just the route that Moses did not take. The 
course he did follow was not only through the Wilder- 
ness, but among wild and hostile tribes, among men born 
to the back of a horse and the use of arms, jealous, fierce, 
and against the intruder in the land. 

And yet he so led them that they became a terror to 
their foes, their very name a sound of alarm. 

He was the founder of a religion. The primary arti- 
cle of this new religion was the unity of God. And 
when you consider that polytheism was universal, that 
Egypt was the hotbed, the cradle and the nursery of 
idolatry, his conceptions of God, and his regulations 
against idolatry are something more than remarkable, 
they are astounding. This religion commanded right- 
eousness of life, purity of motive towards man, and de- 
votion to God, godliness and exalted humanity. His 
sanitary enactments kept the nation alive, and in them- 
selves form the alphabet of all practical morality. 

He was a great Prophet. He not only saw the 
Future, he saw the Past. His vision of the Past is 
given to us in the story of Creation, and in the history 



538 MOSES. 

of the Patriarchs. His story of Creation stands without 
a rival for simplicity of style, for concentration of state- 
ment, for depths of knowledge, and anticipations of Sci- 
ence; and as human Science freeing itself from its limi- 
tations and prejudices comes into possession of actual 
facts, each discovery serves only to confirm the truth, 
and establish the exactitude of his declarations. 

But Moses saw the Future. He saw Christ and drew 
his portrait. 

He saw him as the Only Begotten of the Father, the 
First Born, the Pure, the Sinless, the Holy, the Sacrifice 
for sin, the Substitute for sinners, the Resurrection, the 
Life, and the Coming King; and he drew this portrait in 
the sacrifices and the ceremonials which, he established, 
the Tabernacle which he built, and the priesthood he 
ordained. 

And he who will sit down and study his writings will 
understand what the Son of God meant when he said: 
"Moses wrote of me; if ye believe not his writings, how 
shall ye believe my words?" 

Nay, he who studies these writings of Moses, he who 
examines the ordinances and the ceremonies, will find 
that in every lamb to slaughter led, in every garment 
the priesthood wore, in every board and bar, in every 
curtain, cord and vessel of the Tabernacle, Moses was 
writing of Christ the Crucified, and setting forth the 
Great Salvation. 

Moses himself was the figure and type of Christ. Like 
Christ he was the son of a virgin. Like Christ his life 
as a babe, was in mortal danger. Like Christ he left the 
court of glory. 

Like Christ he was a teacher of men, a man of sor- 
rows and acquainted with grief. 



MOSES. 539 

Like Christ, on account of the sin of the people, he 
was shut out for a season from the favor of God. 

But not only is he in himself a type and figure of 
Christ, he is also a witness of the coming grace of 
Christ; for Moses is the incarnation of the Law; and 
Moses dying there on the Mount, Moses unable to enter 
into the Promised Land is a picture of pictures, telling 
us that the Law cannot take us into the kingdom of 
God; that this Law must be met, satisfied, and set aside 
in death, before the people can go over Jordan, the river 
of Judgment ; and thus prophesies of the Coming of him 
who should take the Law, make it honorable in his life, 
meet its demands in his death, and then by grace divine, 
lead the people safely through the Judgment into the 
Covenant Realm. 

The very last act and attitude of the man, therefore, 
is the proclamation of a needed and coming Saviour, of 
a needed and coming hour of Grace. 

And from beginning to end as we look at his career 
we must say he was great. Beside him the greatest of 
earth are pigmies. There is only one who stands in 
stature above him, he of whom he was the type, the 
Christ, the Lord and Master of us all. 

And when you come to analyze his greatness, to lay 
hold of the one quality that made him all he was, you 
will find that it was neither his wisdom, nor learning, 
nor genius, but his unfaltering faith in God. By that 
faith he endured as seeing him that is invisible, turned 
his back on the pleasures of sin for a season, on the 
glories of Egypt, on the advantages of time, and look- 
ing across the intervening ages, saw the Christ of God, 
the Judgment Seat, and the recompense of the reward. 
It was a faith that confronted a world, smiled at death, 



540 MOSBS. 

and laid hold on God. A faith that above all the din of 
time got the surge of the great waves of eternity, and 
beyond them, saw the shores of the infinite peace and 
rest. 

Yes, his greatness was his faith. 

It brought him the hand of God to lay him down 
to rest in Moab's lonely vale. It brought him into the 
Promised Land at last, and gave him fellowship in the 
glory of the Transfiguration Mount. And by and by 
it will bring him that great day and hour of triumph for 
his soul when the redeemed of all ages standing on the 
crystal sea shall lift up the song of Moses and the Lamb, 
and thus join his name in hallelujahs of interlacing 
praise with the name of him whose face shone out from 
amid the burning bush, and whose voice spake to him 
on the Holy Mount. An hour of triumph indeed for 
him, the one-time fugitive from Pharaoh's court, stand- 
ing in the court of God, hearing on every breeze, from 
every voice in angelic choir, and from the lips of the 
redeemed out of every nation, people, kindred, and 
tongue, now the name of Jesus the Lamb of God, and 
anon his own name, mingling and ringing in the rhythm 
of the eternal antiphonal song of Moses and the Lamb. 

Reading the story of his life and catching glimpses 
of his coming glory, what shall we say, what can we 
say, but that of all the riches of heaven or of earth, of 
all the gifts and dowers possible to mortal man, noth- 
ing is so precious, nothing is so infinite, nothing has 
in it such endless recompense, both subjective and ob- 
jective, as that faith which believes in, and lays hold on 
God. 



PAUL. 



Paul, 



Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ. 

— Rom. i : I. 



If Moses is the central figure amid the witnesses for 
God in the Old Testament, Paul is the central figure 
amid the witnesses for Christ in the New Testament. 

If the life of Moses presents a series of startling anti- 
theses, the life of Paul is equally antithetical. 

He was a Roman and lived a Jew. He was a Phari- 
see and preached to the Gentiles. He was born a free- 
man and became a slave. He was born a freeman under 
the most tyrannical of masters, and became a slave 
under the most liberal of Redeemers. He was a rigid 
ritualist and an enemy of ceremonies. He lived under 
law and taught only Grace. 

He was blamelessly righteous and the chief of sinners. 

He set aside the ordinances and placed himself under 
a vow. He would not allow Titus to be circumcised, 
but, himself, offered as a sacrifice in the Temple. He 
claimed citizenship with Christ and appealed to Nero. 
He preached peace and stirred up riots. He persecuted 
Christians and built churches. He was Saul the De- 
stroyer and became Paul the Worker. 

He died in Rome and lives in Heaven. His pen is 
silent, but his epistles still speak. 

Not only is his life antithetical, but he, himself, stands 
in antithetical contrast to the Moses whom he super- 
sedes. 

Moses enfranchised a nation. Paul liberates a soul. 
Moses stamps the name of Jew on the world, Paul 
stamps the name of Christian on the world. Moses re- 

543 



544 PAUL. 

veals God as Lawgiver, Paul reveals God as Grace- 
giver. Moses points to the kingdom, Paul points to the 
church. Moses points to the land that is full of foun- 
tains and brooks of water, and highest hills, Paul points 
to him who is the Fountain of living waters, and to the 
land that is higher than the hills. 

Moses talks about going into the land, Paul talks 
about going into the Glory. Moses has to do with that 
which is local and transitory, Paul has to do with that 
which is infinite and eternal. If he supersedes Moses, 
he outranks the disciples. Peter may represent the 
Christian in the flesh, James the Christian under the 
Law, John the Christian walking in love, but Paul rep- 
resents the Christian as risen and seated at the Right 
Hand of God. Paul is the Imperial apostle. The apos- 
tle of conflict, but victory; of restless energy, but eter- 
nal hope. Paul gives us the Christianity of the head as 
well as the heart; intellectuality as well as spirituality; 
reason as well as faith, and faith both the base and apex 
of true reason. 

To Paul is committed the doctrine of the church, 
from Paul come the epistles to the church. If Christ is 
the incarnation of the Doctrine of God, then Paul is the 
incarnate definition of the Doctrine of God. 

Whatever may have been his physical stature, his 
moral elevation casts its shadow across our times, and 
his head and shoulders can be seen above the tallest 
mountains. 

He was born in Tarsus, a no mean city of Cilicia. 
He was born under Roman sway at the hour of her 
apogee; at the hour when she was seeking architecture 
from Greece, commerce from the islands, and science 
from Egypt. He was born at an hour when the tramp 



PAUL. 545 

of returning legions could be heard coming back from 
the fields of conquest; and when Roman arches, telling 
the power of Roman prowess and Roman civilization 
were being erected on every square. 

He spoke Greek, Latin and Hebrew, and knew the 
Aramaic and Syriac vernacular. He was at home in the 
Greek Anthology, and was versed in all the legends of 
the Talmud. He breathed the atmosphere of Grecian 
and Eastern metaphysics; came to Jerusalem; sat at the 
feet of Gamaliel, and drank in deep draughts of Hebrew 
history, Law and Tradition, and to the predisposition 
of seeker after truth added the terrific conditions of re- 
ligious bigot and national partizan. 

He was a member of the Jewish Sanhedrin, and, there- 
fore, once married. He sat in the Council which tried 
the martyr Stephen, assisted as a witness at his death, 
and inflamed with hatred against Christ and Christianity, 
went to Damascus with authority to extirpate "this her- 
esy." 

Jesus met him above the Damascus gates; he fell 
down, and amid the dust of repentance owned the 
Christ of God, and straightway, went forth to preach 
him, showing to his countrymen that this Jesus is the 
Christ, openly alleging that the Jews had fulfilled their 
prophets in condemning him. 

But he saw a wider field than Judea, and heard a 
louder call than the voice of his own people. He saw 
in the night the vision of a man in Macedonia who 
stretched out his arms and said: "Come over and help 
us." 

And then, straightway he took the mightiest journey, 
and crossed the widest distance, ever accomplished by 
mortal man : he passed over the distance between Jewish 



546 PAUL. 

exclusiveness and pagan liberalism. He passed out of 
the realm of narrow provincialism, and entered the broad 
realm of a dying and needy world. 

To him, Corinth appealed as well as Jerusalem, the 
Greek as well as the Jew. Under the phylacteries of the 
one, and the curled locks of the other, he knew there was 
a human soul, needing a Saviour. His doctrine was 
unique. He taught that Jesus of Nazareth was the Son 
of God, crucified for sin, dead, buried, raised the third 
day, ascended to Heaven and seated at the right hand of 
God; from whence he should come to establish a king- 
dom in Israel and over Israel, a kingdom of God as well 
as man. 

He taught that the church is the Temple of God, the 
Body of Christ, his Bride; that the church is not the 
kingdom, but the reigning family in the coming king- 
dom. He taught that Christ is the second Adam, the 
Head and beginning of a new creation, and that the 
work of God in this age is to create a new race in the 
moral image of Christ, and at His Second Coming, to 
clothe this new race in him with his outward image and 
glory. 

In dealing with the world's evil he relied wholly on 
the Gospel. 

He did not stand on the public corners and arraign 
the municipal corruption of Athens, Corinth., Ephesus, 
or Rome. He did not organize investigating commit- 
tees against moral and political iniquity. He did not 
take the field for clearer and more popular government. 
He neither acted the part of a secret detective nor a 
political partizan. 

He saw the whole world given over to sin. He saw 
vice in its most tempting form; he saw it in statues, 



PAUL. 547 

sculptured in marble, and painted on canvas. Aye, he 
saw it in flesh more beautiful than marble, more beauti- 
ful than rarest canvas, and exposed to common view. 
He heard it in siren voices, and caught it in the breath 
of the very flowers. He knew that virtue was the ex- 
ception and vice the rule. L,asciviousness and wanton- 
ness touched him on every side, he touched them on 
every side, and yet he never thought of lifting a crusade 
against them. 

Whether it was corruption in office, the squandering 
of the people's money, or the shameless, open sin in 
temples of Venus, he did one thing, and one thing only: 
he preached the Gospel of Christ, declared that it was 
the power of God unto salvation, and by it ploughed the 
furrows of truth so deep that the temples of sin fell into 
them, were buried, and forgotten. 

He dealt in wisdom with the church at large. He 
never placed it under law, but always under love ; he 
unfolded truth, wrote letters that touched every secret 
wrong, gave place to the Spirit of God in every assem- 
bly, and allowed that assembly in the Spirit to work 
order out of chaos, harmony out of discord. 

The ministry which he had begun with such "straight- 
wayness," he continued till his voice had been heard in 
Antioch, in Athens, in Ephesus, in Corinth, in Mace- 
donia, along the Adriatic coast, in Spain, and in Im- 
perial Rome. 

He climbed mountains, threaded valleys, crossed 
rivers, passed through towns and villages, hamlets and 
deserts, and sailed the seas till he had placed to his 
credit thousands of miles as a traveller, and thousands 
of lives as a winner of souls. 

And in fulfilling this ministry he passed continually 
through the gateway of suffering. 



548 PAUL. 

He was put in prison at Philippi, stoned out of Thes- 
salonica and Berea, arrested in Ephesus, left for dead 
in Galatia, nearly torn to pieces in Jerusalem, shut up 
in a dungeon at Caesarea, shipwrecked on the Mediter- 
ranean, tied to a soldier's arm at Rome, sealed up in 
the Mamertine prison, and at last, according to tradi- 
tion, beheaded on the Appian Way. 

To read the story of his ministry, is to read the story 
of persecution, affliction, misrepresentation, and lack of 
appreciation. 

Let me repeat what he says in one of his letters: 

"We are fools for Christ's sake; we are despised; we 
hunger and thirst, and have no certain dwelling place; 
we work with, our own hands; we are reviled; we are 
persecuted; we are defamed; we are made the filth of 
the world, the offscouring of all things." 

Listen to what he says in another letter : 

"Of the Jews, five times received I forty stripes save 
one; thrice was I beaten with rods; once was I stoned; 
thrice I suffered shipwreck; a night and a day have I 
been in the deep ; in journeyings often, in perils of water, 
in perils of robbers, in perils of mine own countrymen; 
in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in 
the wilderness; in weariness and painfulness; in watch- 
ings often; in hunger and in thirst; in fastings often; in 
cold and nakedness. Beside those things that are with- 
out, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all 
the churches." 

Of all the sufferings which he endured, the keenest, 
the bitterest, were from those who professed to be Chris- 
tians. 

The first church at Jerusalem looked on him with 
jealousy and suspicion, discounted his doctrine, mini- 



PAUL. 549 

mized the value of his labors, and sought to compromise 
him before the Elders of the people. But his keenest 
sufferings from Christians were produced by those 
whom he had blessed. They criticized him and found 
fault with him. 

To be sure, like the Galatians at first, they could not 
do enough for him, could not exalt his praises high 
enough, were willing to take out their own eyes and 
give them to him. 

But the moment he commenced to probe them with 
the truth they resented it, and referring to it he says: 
"The more I love you the less I be loved." They 
stabbed him with that weapon with which pastors in 
our day are stabbed, "They say." 

They used this keen and cowardly instrument against 
him in every direction, against his private life, his ec- 
centricities, his social life, or his lack of it, and his doc- 
trinal concepts, until at times his heart was almost 
broken; almost broken with the heartless thoughtless- 
ness of those who called themselves the Disciples of 
Christ. . 

No preacher ever had greater professions of friendship 
made to him, and no preacher, perhaps, was ever more 
thoroughly betrayed by men, until at the last he wrote: 
"All men forsook me." 

It is easy to meet the assaults of infidelity, to over- 
come the errors of unbelief, and by the grace of God 
resist the wiles of the devil, but the preacher who can 
come into contact with the fault-finding and rasping 
judgments, the merciless misunderstanding and unrea- 
sonable demands of those who profess to be the sons 
of God, and still keep his faith, still continue to minister, 
and seek to help unselfishly, reveals the existence of a 
faith and Christly manhood superbly great. 



550 PAUL. 

And Paul did all this, and when he stood on the 
threshold of eternity cried, so all heaven and earth might 
hear: "I have fought the fight, I have kept the faith." 

In analyzing his history we are led to consider the 
roles he filled. 

Like Moses he was a great patriot. He was a Jew, 
an Israelite, a Hebrew of the Hebrews, a Pharisee of the 
Pharisees. 

He never set aside his national or ancestral pride; 
and he was so devoted to that nation and to that people 
that not only did he claim that the Jew had the first 
right to the Gospel, but declared his own willingness to 
be accursed from Christ for their sakes in order that 
they might be saved. 

He was the greatest of missionaries. 

Without aid from societies, without support of wealth, 
without modern means of communication, without rail- 
roads, or steamboats, without telegraphs to send his 
messages, with no reporters to serve up his sermons, 
or make them known to the general public, and adver- 
tise him as the greatest and most wonderful of preachers, 
he travelled thousands of miles, addressed multitudes 
among all nations, peoples, kindred's and tongues, and 
made the name of Christ known from the pillars of Her- 
cules to the waters of Damascus, from the hills of Rome 
to the deserts of Arabia. 

He was a great preacher. 

He stirred the council at Jerusalem, swayed the mul- 
titude on the steps of Antonia, held in silence the audi- 
ence in the Acropolis, moved the mixed multitudes at 
Corinth, and was as earnest with the little company oi 
Lydia's household, and the startled jailer at Philippi, as 
when he wept over the crowds in Ephesus. 



PAUL. 551 

He was a great builder of churches. 

He filled the cities and dotted the plains with them. 

Wherever he came he led men and women to Christ, 
and then organized them into worshipping and working 
assemblies. 

He was a great theologian. 

He dealt with the high themes of God and Satan, Sin 
and Holiness, Life and Death, Time and Eternity. 

His Epistle to the Romans is a masterpiece of legal 
reasoning and divine defining. 

His Epistle to the Ephesians is a series of faultless 
deductions, spiritual revelations, and heavenly exalta- 
tions. 

All his theology is Christo-centric, and every phrase 
is a volume of infinite suggestions. 

He was a tireless worker. 

No sooner had he finished one journey than he began 
another. 

He was a great pastor. 

He sought out the weak, he yearned after the erring, 
he restored the fallen, he encouraged the downcast, and 
gave his time to all who claimed it, not only of one 
church, but of all, not only of a province, but of a 
world. 

He was a great hero. 

He did not hesitate to face the anger, the mockery 
and the menace of a whole nation, and that his own, in 
behalf of the truth. 

He did not hesitate to stand up against the whole 
church and rebuke its Chiefest Apostle. 

And on that dark and terrible night when the wild 
winds broke from the black clouds and the blacker sea 
became white with the rage of the storm, and the ship 



552 PAUL. 

moaned and careened, and broke, plank by plank, and 
sailors and soldiers shivered with fear, and cried with 
terror, he stood forth calm and unmoved, and in a voice 
which rang across the sea, and has rung across the ages 
to us, cried: "Sirs, I believe God, that it shall be even as 
it was told me." 

But in analyzing his character more profoundly we 
must examine the elements or forces which moved him, 
not only as a man, but as a Christian worker. And they 
are easily found, and give the secret of his mighty con- 
tinuance and unparalleled success. 

He believed that the souls of men were in danger. 

And so terrible was this danger to him that he was 
willing, if needs be, to act the part of another Christ, 
and like him become a curse for men. He believed that 
Christ alone could save them, and to preach any other 
Gospel, in his eyes, was soul-murder; and he rang an- 
athema upon all such preachers. 

He believed that Christ had so completely bought him 
with his precious blood that he had no longer any per- 
sonal rights in himself; and therefore without hesitation 
called himself the slave of Jksus Christ. 

He believed that Christ loved even him, Paul ; that on 
the cross Christ saw Paul and died for Paul; that from 
heaven he saw Paul, and wielded his Providence for 
Paul. 

And this contemplation of Christ's love for him con- 
strained him until he cried: "The love of Christ con- 
straineth me." 

He believed that Christ was a real and living person, 
and he made that personal and actual Christ the objec- 
tive of his life. He said : "For me to live is Christ." 

The Christ who is real and personal, the man who is 



PAUL. 553 

living in yonder glory is the magnet, he says: "which 
draws me on ; to him, for him I live, my life is for him, 
he only is my life." 

And he believed that this personal and living Christ 
was coming back to the world, and he lived each day in 
the hope of that coming. He lived as though he might 
meet him at any moment in the bend of the road, any 
instant hear his voice, or feel the touch of his loving 
hand. 

One word alone can give the secret of his Christian 
life and that word is "consecration ;" an absolute sur- 
render of all he had, and was, to Christ. 

One watchword alone was in his life, that mightiest 
phrase which a human lip can utter and a human heart 
can feel, for Christ's sake. 

For Christ's sake, he broke with Tradition, for Christ's 
sake he became an outcast from his nation, for Christ's 
sake he lived yonder in Corinth, and ate black bread, and 
was naked, and cold and hungry. 

When foes assailed him; when friends betrayed him; 
when his heart broke because of human meanness; 
when the night grew dark and he was alone and the 
clammy ooze of the deep dungeon was about him, there 
was one magic whispered watchword which stirred 
through his soul and held him, and that magic watch- 
word was, "for Christ's sake." 

Nor can any man say that this surrender was fanatic 
and futile. 

Fanatic and futile ! 

Let the millions, yea, the millions who have found 
their way to God through some word of his refute the 
charge. 

Let the multitude to-»day who read his words, and fol- 



554 PAUL. 

low his testimonies, and seek to follow out the problem 
of the divine life in the soul through some brave sugges- 
tion of his, refute the charge. 

And the day is coming when this consecration, this 
devotion, this self-immolation, shall find its full reward. 

Some bits and glimpses of it came to him when he 
was caught up into the third heaven and heard unspeak- 
able words, and caught visions which forever made him 
blind to the attractions of earth. He has been getting 
some installments of that coveted "with Christ" in 
which he has been resting these eighteen hundred years. 
And he will find it to the full in that hour when he shall 
come with Christ and all the world shall see that the 
slave OF earth has become the king of heaven. 

But the reward that will most fill his soul will be to 
see the multitudes who have been brought to Christ 
directly and indirectly through his labors; to him it will 
be a joy of joys to greet those to whom he preached, 
and over whom he watched with fatherly love and care; 
to hear their happy voices amid the intoning of the an- 
gelic choirs, and know that he has been the instrument 
of their delight. For he himself has said : "What is our 
hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Are not even ye in 
the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his Coming?" 

But above and beyond all that, his reward of rewards 
will be to see the joy that shall fill the heart of God's 
own Christ as he gathers his Blood-bought jewels 
about him; joy for Paul to know that he has been the 
mighty means through grace to fill his Master's life and 
make him glad ; to him this shall be the kingly crown, 
the recompense and compensation for all the sorrows 
by the way. 

And from that far hour of splendor he cries down to 



PAUL. 555 

us to-day with a voice of inspiration for our lives : "For 
me to uvk is Christ." 

This was the secret of his life then ; this was his peace 
here; this is his "far-better" now, and shall be his ci,ory 
SURE TO COME. 



THE DELICATE SEAL AND THE 
DAY OF REDEMPTION. 



Cbe Delicate Seal and the Day of 
Redemption. 



Ye were sealed with that 
Holy Spirit of Promise. 

— Eph. i : 13. 



In Ephesians iv : 30, it is written : "Grieve not the Holy 
Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of 
redemption." 

Three things are to be observed here: 

1. A day of redemption is coming to all those who 
are Christians. 

2. We who are Christians are sealed unto the day of 
redemption. 

3. We are exhorted as Christians not to grieve the 
Holy Spirit whereby we are sealed unto the day of re- 
demption. 

The word "redemption" signifies deliverance, and the 
root idea is a deliverance brought about by purchase, a 
ransom paid. 

Redemption is three-fold : For us, in us, upon us. 

For us by the blood of the cross. The blood was a 
ransom paid to justice, and by that we have been re- 
deemed, delivered from judgment and death. 

Redemption is in us by regeneration. We who have 
believed have been regenerated: that is to say, a new 
nature has been given us, — the nature of Christ: and 
this nature delivers us from the power of sin. 

Then we have redemption upon us. Redemption 
upon us is upon our bodies. Our bodies are to be re- 
deemed by resurrection and transfiguration. They are 

559 



5<5o DELICATE SEAL. 

to be redeemed from the bondage of death and corrup- 
tion. They will be made immortal, and like unto the 
body of the Son of God. 

This is the redemption spoken of in the text. 

There is a definite day or period set for that redemp- 
tion. It will take place at the Coming of our Lord 
Jesus Christ. It will be a supreme moment. 

The description of it is given by the Apostle in his 
First Epistle to the Thessalonians, fourth chapter, fif- 
teenth, sixteenth and seventeenth verses. 

"For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, 
that we which are alive and remain unto the Coming 
of the Lord, shall not prevent (or go before) them which 
are asleep. For the Lord Himself shall descend from 
heaven with a shout, with the voice of the arch-angel, 
and with the trump of God ; and the dead in Christ shall 
rise first: Then we which are alive and remain, shall be 
caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the 
Lord in the air ; and so shall we evef be with the Lord." 

The figure is a military one. An army has been 
marching all day, and as the day wanes and the night 
draws on, the marching column halts and enters into 
bivouac. In a brief period those living hosts are lying 
stretched amid the dust of earth, wrapped in deepest 
slumber. Once moving, throbbing, alert with all the 
forces of life; now motionless, inert, no longer a part of 
the activities around, or beyond them. About the hour 
of the morning star the commanding general comes 
forward and speaks to one of his officers, and orders 
the advance of the sleeping army. The officer speaks to 
the trumpeter and bids him sound the reveille. In a 
moment is heard the wailing notes of the trumpet. In- 
stantly the army is awake and risen. Men take their 



DELICATE SEAL. 561 

places in company, regiment, brigade, and division. An- 
other trumpet sounds and those who have been standing 
on the picket line on guard come in and join the main 
body. And then begins the march before the command- 
ing general. 

This is the figure, and herein is the truth. There is 
an army in our midst at bivouac, a great army asleep 
upon their arms; they toiled and marched through a long 
and weary day, and then at the end of that day of toil 
and marching lay down to sleep, and are sleeping now, 
sleeping in the dust of earth. It is a sleep from which 
as it is said, "none ever wake to weep." 

Go and look at this bivouac, this army of sleeping 
soldiers — you will find them all about you in the silent 
cemeteries (sleeping-places) keeping the bivouac of the 
dead. 

They are sleeping there, they are resting there in the 
dust of old mother earth at last. Through the long, long 
day of life they bore, some of them, heavy and grievous 
burdens, and were footsore and weary through many a 
mile of their toilsome march. Not infrequently. the stain 
of tears was upon their faces, and some of them bore 
marks of wounds received by the way. But the longest 
day and the most painful march must end at last. So 
was it with them: The sun went down, the shadows 
began to fall, and a voice, they heard, cried "Halt;" 
they obeyed, they laid them down to sleep. They are 
sleeping now. 

Prophets, priests, apostles, a long and shining muster 
roll that gleams upon the page of history, and is all- 
sufficient to fill our hearts with memories of days that 
are past and gone — with memories of father, mother, 
loved one of our home, sleeping to-day. 



562 DELICATE SEAL. 

They are asleep in Jesus. 

They believed in him, they confessed his name, and 
when the hour of halting in the midst of life's busy ways 
came to them, they smiled, bade us good-bye, and lay 
down to rest in that name they wore, in him whom they 
had believed. 

And he has not forgotten them ; some day, as the 
Commanding General, he will come and gaze upon this 
bivouac of the dead who died, in him. It will be about 
the time of the morning star. 

He will call to the Archangel and give the word for 
the army to awake, arise, and march. The Archangel 
will speak to God's trumpeter. He will stand forth and 
blow a blast, and lo, the sleepers in the dust of earth will 
awake, and arise, each in his own company and division 
— Patriarchs, Prophets, Priests, the Faithful in Israel, 
and the Church of the Living God. 

Another trumpet will sound, and the living who 
are on guard, those who have been doing picket duty on 
the outposts of life — for, "some must watch while others 
sleep, thus runs the world away" — will go forth to join 
the rising ranks of those who are advancing upward to 
meet their descending Lord; and with shining faces and 
smiles of recognition to one another, will march in the 
grand review before the Living Christ. 

It will be the day of redemption, the day of the re- 
demption of our bodies, their deliverance from death 
and corruption. And this day of redemption is coming 
sooner than we dream, at an hour when we think not. 

Just as Israel stood on the margin of the Jordan wait- 
ing for the trump to sound that they might go over and 
take possession of the Promised Land, so there is noth- 
ing between us and this Promised Land of immortality 



DELICATE SEAL. 563 

and likeness unto his image and glory, but the sudden 
sound of a trumpet at his second, and imminent coming. 
This then is my first point ; a day of redemption is com- 
ing to those of us who are Christians. 

I note in the second place that we who are Christians 
have been sealed unto that day of redemption. The 
word "sealed" means stamped, branded, marked, war- 
ranted, guaranteed. A seal, a stamp, a mark has been 
put on us ; and that mark warrants us, guarantees us unto 
the day of redemption. That is to say, the seal or mark 
is a pledge that our bodies, dead or living, shall be de- 
livered from mortality and made immortal. 

A seal may be the witness, the pledge, the guaranty, 
of purchase, ownership, and destination. I once saw a 
splendid vase nearly covered with outer coverings. . A 
great seal was on it, and an inscription which said that 
this vase has been purchased by an Oriental prince, and 
was to be delivered to him in his palace in his native city. 
Now we as Christians bear a stamp, a mark, a seal, and 
an inscription which declares that we too, have been pur- 
chased by an Oriental Prince, even our God and Saviour, 
Jesus Christ. 

This seal is the pledge of that solemn purchase, the 
witness that we are his, and the guaranty that we shall 
be transported to his capital city in heaven, into his pal- 
ace, into tne throne room, and there shine as the ves- 
sels of glory. This seal is the declaration that we shall 
be transported! there on that great and wonderful day 
called "the day of redemption." Like the prince's vase, 
we are still surrounded, wrapped about with the outer 
covering of mortality, but, in that Great Day, the cover- 
ing will be taken off, and we shall shine in all the beauty 
of his immortality. And we bear in our bodies the stamp, 
the mark, the seal of that glorious hour, 



564 DELICATE SEAL. 

This seal is indeed the most marvellous of seals. Some 
seals are made of clay, some of wax, some of lead, or 
iron, or brass, some of silver and of gold. 

But this seal is beyond all this. This seal is a person. 
Yes, a real, a living person, dwelling in us. That person 
is none other than the Holy Spirit, the Third Person of 
the Most Blessed Trinity. 

He is in us the moment we believe. He is both the 
sealer and the seal. His very presence in us marks us, 
stamps us, puts a seal upon us, sets us apart, makes us 
different from all other beings in the universe. 

He is in us a seal, a manifold witness and guaranty. 
The witness and guaranty that Christ died for us, that 
we are his by right of purchase, that we are accepted in 
him, and by him, that we are one in spirit with him. 
All this he is, but he is besides, the witness and the guar- 
anty definitely of the redemption of our bodies, either by 
resurrection or by transfiguration. 

He is so because he is himself the essential power of 
resurrection. By and through him Jesus Christ was 
raised from the dead. Hence, if he is in us, he is in us 
as the power by which our bodies are to be raised or 
changed, as it is written : "He shall quicken your mortal 
bodies by his spirit that dwelleth in you." 

Here then is the immense fact: As Christians we carry 
in us the power that can raise our bodies from the dead, 
just as the seed carries in itself the power that will en- 
able it to burst forth into bloom and beauty. 

Here is the answer to every Nicodemus' question, 
"How can these things be?" — "How are the dead raised 
up, and with what body do they come?" We lay our 
hands upon our breasts and say : "By the spirit who 
dwelleth in us." 



DELICATE SEAL. 565 

And is not this enough? Cannot he who paints the 
morning and the evening sky, cannot he, the Eternal 
Spirit of the Living God, cannot he raise the dead? 

All men admit that resurrection is simply a question 
of God's power. Well, if God by his Holy Spirit is 
dwelling in us, that suffices. Behold then the comfort 
and the consolation of the indwelling of the Spirit. 

He is in us the advance agent of the resurrection and 
the transfiguration, the guaranty and pledge of the great 
day of redemption and glory. 

Think of it Christian, you carry about in you the seal 
and mark of that coming Mightiest of Days. 

This leads me to note third and finally, that as Chris- 
tians who have thus been so solemnly sealed to that Day 
of Days, we ought not to grieve this Holy Spirit who 
dwelling within, has sealed us. 

The word "grieve" means to distress, to worry, to 
trouble. Do you think you can take in the full meaning 
of the idea that the Holy Ghost can be worried, dis- 
tressed, and troubled, and that, too, by us? But it is 
true. The Holy Spirit in us is the most sensitive thing 
in the universe of God. Not a sensitive plant, not the 
hair-spring of a watch, is so delicate, so sensitive, as he. 

It is true he is himself Power, and Power in the con- 
crete, the Essential Power of the universe, the Power 
that gilds the sun, paints the lily, shatters the mountain ; 
the Power that produces in us the Son of God, Christ 
in us the hope of glory, the Power that shall raise the 
dead and change the living, and carry us up bodily as 
on eagles' wings to the very throne of God. And yet 
with all this, he is in us more tender, more delicate than 
a breath of the evening breeze. He is in us love divine, 
and he will do nothing to force us. And just because 



566 DELICATE SEAL. 

of this tenderness and love we may most easily grieve, 
worry and distress him. 

We may do all this by the places into which we go. 
There are places into which you could not take your 
wife without bringing a blush to her cheek and distress- 
ing her greatly. There are places into which you can- 
not take the Holy Ghost without bringing a blush to 
his cheek and distressing him. You cannot take him 
to the wine-glass, the dance, or the card table without 
making him blush, distressing and grieving him sorely. 

We can grieve him by our deeds, by our actions in 
business, and pleasure. We can grieve him by the com- 
pany we keep, by the conversation in which we engage, 
by its lightness and frivolity, by its utter lack of salt. 
We can grieve him by our thoughts, by their unkind- 
ness, their injustice, their bitterness, their impurity. 

Oh, by a thought we may grieve this Blessed Spirit 
in us. We may grieve him by our relation to the house 
of God, by our attitude within it, or by absenting our- 
selves from it. We may grieve him by withholding tes- 
timony and restraining prayer, and by keeping back our 
gifts, whether of time, talent, or substance. 

And this grieving and distressing may go on till the 
SpirL will no longer manifest himself, not only so that 
the world will not know that he is in us, but so that we 
ourselves may no longer hnow it. 

He will not leave us, oh, no: He is here, in as, to see 
us through to the end. He will be with us in the hour 
of death in order that death may not possess our souls, 
and that between death anb! resurrection we may be 
surely with the Lord. He will be with us in the great 
Day of Redemption that we may not miss its mighty 
roll-call of the blood-purchased saints, but he will no 
longer manifest Himself to us here in our daily life. 



DELICATE SEAL. 567 

Like a friend who is grieved he will no longer force 
himself on our attention. He will be silent and inactive 
in us. 

The Holy Spirit silent and inactive in a son of God! 
And who can tell the loss that all this may mean? We 
lose him as Comforter and Consolation, as Power, as 
Communion with God, as the very essence of the Chris- 
tian life. 

Grieve not the Holy Spirit. Nay, let us own him, sub- 
mit to him, make him the Regent in our lives, the Ruler 
and the Power. Own him and make him happy. 

And, oh, my soul, when the Holy Ghost in thee is 
glad and happy, when thou dost deal tenderly and deli- 
cately with him, then thou shalt be free and happy and 
glad also. 

"Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are 
sealed unto the day of redemption." 



MEET FOR THE MASTER'S USE. 



meet for tbe masters Use, 



Then he said, Go, borrow thee vessels 
abroad of all thy neighbors, even empty 
vessels ; borrow not a few. 

— 2 Kings iv ; j. 



"If a man therefore purge himself from these, he 
shall be a vessel unto honor, sanctified, and meet for the 
master's use." II Timothy ii: 21. 

We have to consider here : 

1. The relation which Christ sustains to the believer. 
He is the master. That word "master" is our English 
word "despot." He is the believer's despot. What- 
ever else he may be, back of all other things he is the 
believer's despot. His wish is law, his will is supreme, 
his authority incontestable ; in short, his authority over 
a believer is the authority of a master over a slave. He 
has right unlimited to his body, his soul, his spirit, his 
time, his talent, his substance. 

He occupies this position as Creator. 

Consider him as a man if you will, see all his hu- 
manity as you may, he who with a word smoothed the 
billows of Gennesaret, with a word brought the dead 
to life, and with a look turned water into wine, by that 
same word framed the heavens of old, by that look 
flashed light through yonder sun, and by that power 
unspeakable created man. 

He occupies this position as Redeemer. 

Call the cross by what name you please, define his 
death after what fashion you desire, he who hung upon 
that cross, whom death could not touch till he bowed 
his head and bade it come, and who with the voice of 



572 MEET FOR THE MASTER'S USE. 

authority and power commanded his Spirit to go, died 
under contract of his own will, died under contract of 
his own power, and made each drop of his blood the 
current coin of a measureless purchase; so that the 
earth, the cattle on the hills, and the souls of men are 
his, his by the right of merchandise transferred. 

He occupies this position as Regenerator. 

No stone was ever more voiceless of praise to God, 
no body embalmed in spice and shut within the portals 
of the tomb, was ever more dead in relationship to God, 
than each believer before Jesus Christ the glorified 
touched him with his power; and if to-day the believer 
can say, even with feeblest voice, "I believe, help thou 
mine unbelief," his voice of praise, his life of the Spirit, 
all date from that moment of contact with the Son of 
God. By the law of life and union then he is his ; and 
this Master has the same authority and dominion over 
him that the vine has over the branches, that the tree has 
over its fruit. 

In whatever direction you may analyze it, the relation- 
ship of Christ to the believer is the relationship of 
uncompromising absolutism. He is the Lord, he is the 
Tyrant, he is the Despot, he is the Master. 

Consider in the second place: 

2. The relationship which the believer ought to sus- 
tain to Christ. 

He ought to sustain the relation of usefulness to the 
Master. 

"Meet for the Master's use." 

That word "use" signifies profit, advantage. He 
ought to be of profit, he ought to be of advantage to the 
Master. 

Advantage, profit, use to him? 



MEET FOR THE MASTER'S USE. 573 

And why to him ? 

Consider him purely as a man. Did he not as a man 
seem to have all resources in himself? When he came 
to a wide sea did he use a bridge or a boat? When he 
wanted bread was it necessary to build bakeries, or to 
make fire in ovens to turn out loaves for five thousand 
hungry men ? He who could tell men's thoughts had no 
need of telephones nor printing presses, nor bureaus of 
private information. He who could ascend to the gates 
of Glory as easily as you can mount your own stair- 
way, and who sat down on the throne of God with the 
same ease and fitness with which you would enter your 
home and sit down in the fellowship of your family, 
can surely have no needs that any mortal being may 
supply, even though that mortal were the most devoted 
of believers. 

Of what possible use then can these men and wo- 
men of the earthly life be to him, even though they call 
themselves Christians and follow 'n his steps? Can 
they add to his righteousness, can they add to his 
power, will their failure in any direction affect him in 
any of these things ? Consider these Christians : per- 
plexed, troubled, tempted, doubting, despairing, dying, 
they fill the earth every day with their lamentations and 
weaknesses. Of what possible use can these be to him 
except to develop more intensely his pity ; what effect can 
they have upon him except to deepen his conviction of 
their helplessness? 

Come with me yonder into that old cathedral pile. 
The foundation stone was sunken in a far forgotten 
century. The dust upon its floor is the dust of the 
buried kings and queens beneath it. The very atmos- 
phere is full of the lingering breath of priest and poet, 



574 MEET FOR THE MASTER'S USE. 

warrior and statesman of the long ago; old days and 
old times with high deeds and plaintive cryings, with 
tears of penitents and pomp of ritual have trodden 
through these foot-worn aisles. Yonder from that 
western window the light of a dying day streams through 
the transfigured faces of the painted saints, burns crim- 
son and gold through their illuminated garments, and 
falls in slanting lines upon the dust-covered organ, flings 
its gleams into the deep recesses behind the reedy 
trumpets, and mingles its amber with the dark yellow 
of the untouched keys. But all is silent in that instru- 
ment once consecrated to noblest harmonies. 

Two men enter. 

They have journeyed together for a day along the 
white winding roads of the vine-clad country. One is 
strong, vigorous, full of the joy and brutality of un- 
broken life. The other is neither young nor old, neither 
strong nor weak, not a phantom it is true, yet as soft 
and noiseless as the waning light about him ; to his com- 
panion, nevertheless, he is but a dim and shadowy figure, 
a man of years and growing weakness. They have been 
companions since the morning, and the stronger of the 
two has looked with a feeling of pity half akin to con- 
tempt upon the other. No sooner are they across the 
threshold of the building than the shadowy traveller 
passes straight up the time-worn aisle and without a 
moment's hesitation sits him down before the ancient 
key-board. He touches it. There is a low, sweet mur- 
mur, like a shiver of anticipated harmony. The notes 
mingle, multiply, expand. The tone rises, the deeper 
notes swell underneath as if to bear it up, and as it rises 
and accentuates itself into ten thousand shades of ex- 
pression, each more exquisite than the other, all the 



MEET FOR THE MASTER'S USE. 575 

vocabulary of sound seems to utter itself in rhythm and 
cry out encouragement to every hesitating harmony; 
the profounder billows of the organ hear the invitation 
and roll wave on wave of answering sound beneath, as 
when the sea breaks on a rock-bound shore and every 
rock multiplies the thunderous swell. On sweeps the 
refrain till the listener feels his heart torn out of him. 
The tears are on his face, joy and anguish commingled 
are in his soul. .The sunlight seems to turn to deeper 
gold on the faces of the painted saints, every atom of 
dust rises and gathers into a cloud of glory, while arch, 
transept and nave, seem to float in a flood of light, of 
song, and of infinite gladness. 

The organ had waited through the ages for its master ; 
the master had waited for his organ. 

Oh, this strange human soul, was there ever an organ 
like it? Did organ, century built, ever have such stops, 
such chords, such keys : laughter and tears, hope and 
despair, joy and sorrow? 

And none could, play it; and the day was dying, the 
day of time. But in the fading light God's Son bent 
down from Heaven and touched it. There at Pentecost, 
there at Damascus, there at Patmos, and on through 
the ages has continued to touch it till he has evoked 
from this human soul the wondrous notes of faith, of 
hope, of love and all glad things divine; by thesje 
human lives has so poured forth the pent-up floods, the 
unspeakable dialects and accents of divine harmony, that 
earth has looked on and listened in amaze. Man was 
built for Christ and needs him. Christ was built for man 
and needs him, needs him as the means by which to utter 
himself in life's noblest harmonies. 

But now I would have you contemplate another scene. 



576 MEET FOR THE MASTER'S USE. 

It is under a hot Eastern sky. In the narrow streets 
of the city men are dying of thirst. In the madness of 
that thirst they see the shining of the dew-drops on 
far-awwy stretches of meadow land. They hear the 
gurgle of mountain streams, the plash of falling foun- 
tains, and the rush of rivers between their full fed banks. 
The vision and the sounds mock them as they die. 

But behold again. 

Down the long street one of gentle mien and steady 
step moves on, and following him scores of willing ones 
bearing aloft upon their turbaned heads simple earthen 
jars. These jars are filled with water from the moun- 
tain heights where streams break forth in freshness. As 
the bearers of these jars follow the master, in obedience 
to his commands they cry, "Water of life, water of life, 
who will have it? And now they press the earthen jars 
to the lips of the dying thirsty ones, and these drink 
and live, and are glad. 

Only earthen vessels filled with sparkling waters for 
dying thirsty ones. 

But everywhere it is true that men are dying of thirst. 
You may find them on the mountain, by the sea shore, 
in the town, in the palace, in the hovel, thirsty, unsatis- 
fied, unhappy, heavy hearted, soul burdened, mad with 
dreams and hopes deferred that make the heart sick. 

The Master would take the earthen vessels whom he 
calls his disciples, fill them with the water of life, send 
them to the dying, and in his name bid them give the 
thirsty ones to drink. Yes, through these vessels weak 
and frail, he would communicate himself. By their tears 
and sympathies, by all their common humanity, he would 
touch a dying world and bless it everywhere. 

Once more an illustration. 



MEET FOR THE MASTER'S USE. $77 

In the olden time a worker in gold consecrated his 
days to the chasing and beautifying of a golden vase. 
He gave his days and years to the work. On this vase 
in rare and wondrous letters was written deep the name 
of God ; around that name were woven all fair fruits 
and flowers and gentle forms of life, until it became a 
wonder in the land. Still he wrought, wrought patiently 
till the name of God seemed to be the one strange ex- 
panded thing beneath foliage, fruit and flowers. 

One day they found him dead beside his work. Then 
was the truth revealed ; he had wrought it for the king. 
The king ordered the body buried with great and splendid 
rites, but commanded his heart to be preserved and 
placed in the vessel fashioned with his life, that hence- 
forth that golden vessel bearing in beauty the name of 
God, might also bear the heart that had loved and 
wrought it. 

Is it too much to say that the Christian is that golden 
vessel? That the name of God has been written deeply 
in him ? That out of that name unfold the fruit, the 
flowers, the beauty, and the potentiality of a life of 
sonship with God ? Is it too much to say that the Master 
has wrought this Christian vessel, that it has cost him 
everything: Incarnation, earthly sorrow, and yonder 
cross ? 

Do you wonder that the King Eternal has commanded 
that each golden vessel shall evermore bear the heart 
of him who through life unto death wrought this name 
upon it? Oh, apart from all symbol, or figure, or fancy, 
is it hard to see that the Master can use those who call 
his Father's name upon them? Is it hard to see how 
he can speak through their lips, weep through their 
tears, bless by their hands, and with their feet walk the 



578 MEET FOR THE MASTER'S USB. 

way that leadeth to homes of pain and woe? Is it hard 
to see that here is the highest, mightiest, and noblest 
end of a Christian life: to be used of the Master, to be 
of profit to him, to be to his advantage, to bear him forth 
in heart beat, to pour him forth in life tide, to translate 
him in all noblest harmonies ? 

This then is the relation which the believer should 
sustain to the Master. 

Note finally : 

3. The condition upon which the believer may sus- 
tain this relationship. 

The condition is very simple but strong. He must 
be "meet." That is worthy, fit, prepared. 

Many Christians are not used of the Master. They 
know it themselves with sad hearts. They are Chris- 
tians. They believe the Word, they know that Jesus 
loves them, they pray and testify in his name, but they 
know, and others know that they are not used by him. 
The Master has not found them fit for use. 

And what is that fitness ? No fitness, no preparedness 
were required to receive the divine name and holy life. 
What then is the fitness, or the preparation demanded 
here? 

I answer: 

First of all if he would be used, the Christian must 
take the vessel's place. And what is that? Is it the 
place of an activity and energy of its own? I answer 
no, it is the place of quietness and nothingness, the 
place of submission to the Master's hand so that he may 
lift it, put it here and there, high or low, as it may suit 
him. 

Oh, the hard, bitter battle! What piteous lessons to 
be learned ! How again and again have many tried to 



MEET FOR THE MASTER'S USE. 579 

serve the Master by some native power within and not 
by his hand without, and have learned at last, through 
anguish and keenest mortification of human pride, that 
the power was in the Master's hand and not in the 
vessel's merit at all. 

But more, the vessel must be empty. 

Behold, the Master comes to pour into His purchased 
vessel the ointment of His name. But the vessel is full, 
the Master turns away and the Christian is left to wonder 
why he is not used, why the Master does not make him 
the fragrant bearer of his name. Can you pour into 
that which is already full? Nay. And this Christian 
is full, full of cares, full of self's pleasing, self's plans 
and ways. There is no room in this Christian vessel. 
Christ is ready, but he cannot pour within; he cannot 
pour within because the Christian is not ready to re- 
ceive; he is not fit for the Master's use. 

But this is not all. The vessel must be sanctified. 

Sanctified signifies to set apart, and necessarily in 
relation to divine things, set apart and devoted to the 
divine use. The Christian has been set apart and de- 
voted to the use of God by the purchase and the cleans- 
ing of the Master's blood, but he must also purge him- 
self, if you want the Master to use you, from persons, 
things that claim his use apart from the Master's use, 
and from every vessel as well as thing of dishonor. 

Why should we hide it, or deny it, or fight it? There 
it is. The Cross, the Red Blood, Regeneration. That 
is what all these mean. They mean that we are called 
to live a life separate from the worldly throng, from its 
dusty ways and tracks of sin. You must separate your- 
self, if you want the Master to use you, from persons, 
places, and things, that in the slightest degre shut him 



580 MEET FOR THE MASTER'S USE. 

out, weaken the touch of his hand upon you, or loosen 
your grasp in his; anything that hinders you even for a 
moment is being used of him. 

Devoted to Christ. That is the fitness. That is the 
preparation. Not being learned in all things, not having 
genius, or wealth, or power. Oh no, strange, wonderful, 
paradox of paradoxes, your fitness, your preparedness 
for every good work in the Master's name, is just giving 
yourself up to him and saying : 

"Lord, behold me as I am. Just as I am, I place 
myself in thy hand to use." 

That is all. Empty and in his hand. 

Repeat that, I pray you, far and wide, as the sine 
qua non of Christian life, as the secret of meetness for 
the Master's use. 

"Empty and in His hand/' 

Is He using you? 

No. 

You can answer why. 

The answer is: "I am filled with something beside 
Christ." 

Are you satisfied? Can you be content? Do you not 
want him to use you, to pour sweet music through you, 
through you to quench the thirsty lip and inward fire, 
through you to flash forth in beauty and in fragrant 
fruitage the glory of the Father's name? 

Will you let him use you ? Will you sing in your soul 
to-day in glad and happy strain : 

"Sanctified and meet for the Master's use." 

And shall the upper gladness let fall its rhythmic 
welcome and echo back : 

"Behold, a vessel sanctified and meet for the Master's 
use." 



JUL 26 1904 



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